Belated
by Milaya Milen Zeal
Summary: Rallen gets a message from his brother, who's been MIA for almost 12 years, saying that he'll be back home soon. Unable to wait, Rallen and Jeena go to meet up with him at the edge of Nanairo.  Features Rex and Liz from Confidant  RalJeen & RexLiz
1. Prologue

**_Belated_**

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><p><strong>Fandom: <strong>Spectrobes

**Pairing:** Rallen/Jeena, Rex/Liz (OC's)

**Timeline:** Somewhere after the games. Minimal amount of spoilers.

**Summary: **Rallen gets a message from his brother, who's been MIA for almost 12 years, saying that he'll be back home soon. Unable to wait, Rallen and Jeena go to meet up with him at the edge of Nanairo.

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><p><em><strong>Prologue: The Message<strong>_

Rallen sighed heavily as he dropped down onto the couch of Jeena's dorm, completely bushed. "Man, that was annoying…"

Jeena smiled with a shake of her head as she walked into the kitchen to fix them something to eat. While their last mission had hardly been that difficult (in comparison to saving the universe from the Krawl three times over, that is), it had been, as Rallen had pointed out, an annoying mission. They had been sent on a mission to deal with some rogue criminal group, along with a few NPP officers stationed on Nessa, and they had spent almost a week out in the desert with no breaks trying to catch them, and another five days of chasing them around the ruins before they were finally able to apprehend them.

So, yes. It had been an annoying mission.

Upon their return, Commander Marks had managed to talk Grant into giving the pair some (well-deserved) time off (however she had managed, Jeena almost didn't want to know). Rallen, naturally, had been ecstatic. Jeena was, too, to be honest, but she hadn't been as vocal about it as Rallen had.

Which put them where they were now; in Jeena's dorm room in NPPHQ, to catch a bite to eat, and also to discuss what to do with the two weeks "vacation" that Marks had arranged for them.

As Jeena worked on some sandwiches, she looked over, just to see if Rallen was still slouched back as though he'd run for 5 hours straight (since Rallen didn't get tired unless he ran for longer than 4 hours at top speed). However, when she looked, she was surprised to see him holding a small portable device in both hands, his eyes fixed on the screen and his thumbs working rapidly as though he were typing.

"What are you doing?" Jeena called out, making Rallen look up in surprise.

"Huh? Oh, this?" Rallen asked, briefly holding up the device. "I'm writing a report on the mission to Rex."

"To your brother? But I thought he…"

Rallen's older brother, Rex, had also been an NPP officer, and a very good one, if Jeena's investigations in the man's background were correct. Though, much like Rallen, he'd had some difficulty in finding a half-decent partner for the longest time, up until he had been paired up with Commander Liz Marks, also an NPP officer at that time. Almost 12 years ago, however, he went missing on a patrol mission when there was a glitch in their cruiser's system. Only Marks made it back home to Kollin, and Rex had been MIA ever since.

"Yeah… but… well, I gotta keep him posted on what's going on, right?" the orange-haired NPP said, giving a small shrug. "That's why he gave me this thing, anyway…"

"Oh? What is it exactly?" Jeena asked as she walked over with the plates of sandwiches.

"Well… I guess it's… like a journal, I suppose… Rex has one, too, and we always used it to exchange what's happening on our sides of the city," Rallen explained. "When I was young, I always hated it when he went on missions, since I wanted him to stay home… He was the only family I had, besides mom. So he made this thing for me so we could stay in touch even if he was on missions."

"Ah. I see… a sort of private mail system, huh?" the girl mused, picking up a sandwich to munch on.

"Something like that, yeah…" Rallen murmured, briefly setting down the device to grab a sandwich.

"…You think he's still alive?" Jeena asked after a moment.

"Rex is tough. He's not gonna let a cruiser blowing up on him take him down," Rallen said, but his voice was almost… a tad uncertain.

Jeena wouldn't blame him. From what she had gathered, both through Rallen's words and her own private investigation, Rallen and Rex were really close, so it would make sense that he'd think his brother was alive. But after 12 years, everyone would start to have doubts.

Rallen had actually shown her a few pictures of his brother before, and she had to admit, those two really _did_ look alike, very much so. Rex had the same orange-red hair and orange-golden eye color as Rallen, but Rex's hair was often tied back in a loose ponytail and hung down to his shoulders, while his eyes were sharper, same as his facial features, though that might be just because of the age gap between him and Rallen (which was almost 14 years if Jeena remembered correctly). However, in the few pictures she'd seen of Rex, his eyes were alight with the same impish mischief as Rallen's often did, and he was often seen grinning at the camera in a similar way to Rallen.

Her partner always spoke very fondly of his brother whenever they ended up on that particular subject, and he'd often say that Rex would have loved to meet her as well. Jeena was sure she would have loved to meet him as well; if he was anything like Rallen, she was positive that they'd get along just fine.

"So… your messages always arrive at Rex's side?" Jeena asked when Rallen went back to typing.

"Well… they're not sent back… so I'm assuming they are…" Rallen said, but he almost sounded like he was straining for a reason to actually keep writing to his brother, even if there would be no answer. Any kind of reason, really, but Jeena wasn't about to point that out. She didn't want to rob him of whatever kept Rallen from writing to his brother about what was going on while he wasn't around.

Finally, Rallen pressed the final buttons and hit "send", before clicking the portable shut and tucking it away again in his gauntlet.

"Right, so… anyway, what shall we do? With our 'vacation', I mean…"

"Hmm… good question… what to do?"

And so they spent the rest of the day thinking of good ideas of where to spend their time off.

* * *

><p>Rallen wasn't sure what had woken him the following night, but when he realized that he was being denied sleep he groaned and curled up a little further on the bed, attempting to catch a few more z's before he was could wake up fully. However, as he soon realized, once his consciousness began to creep back in on his mind, there was no way for him to get back to sleep, so he snarled and leaped up from the bed.<p>

"Alright! I'm up! Now who the hell's making all the racket?" he demanded angrily as he got to his feet.

As he looked around, though, he couldn't see anyone or anything out of place, making him grumble slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"What the hell? Why did I wake up randomly at… 3:20 in the morning. Shit. I need more slee… …wh… what?"

Rallen's jaw dropped in both surprise and shock as he realized what it was that had woken him; the portable messenger Rex had made him (which was now connected to his computer to recharge) had beeped loudly and was now flickering with a deep blue glow, signaling that he had a new message. And the only one who could send messages to him through that was…

"…Rex…?"

Wide awake in an instant and his earlier annoyance forgotten, Rallen dashed for his desk and snagged it from its docking station, flipping it open immediately once he had it in his hands. But he wasn't prepared for what he saw…

"Wh-what? Over 1000 new messages?" Rallen could only stare at the display, scrolling down the list of new messages a little, noting all the different subjects and wondering just what the hell some of them meant, anyway. And more importantly; where had all those messages come from?

_**BEEP**_

Rallen almost dropped the portable with a yowl of surprise when it beeped in his hand, but he caught it mere inches before it could hit the floor. He scrolled back up to the beginning of the list and saw that he had just received another message. The subject of the message was, strangely enough, "Yipe". Wearily, as though afraid of what he'd find, he pulled out the stylus and tapped the newest message.

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><p><em>Wow! You don't sit still AT ALL, do ya, Rallen? I'm away for a little bit and you damn well spam my inbox with messages, eh? Then again, I probably ended up doing the same with mine, didn't I? I guess that's a bug in my… well, our little system; it can send and receive, no problem, but if the distance becomes too great, the messages just… Well, they don't "disappear", but they just float around and wait for the other side to get back into range. I admit, that's my bad, but what can I say? I only got the basis for programming, so sue me! Wait, actually, don't sue me; I probably ain't got the money to pay for that at this point.<em>

_And here I go getting off subject again, heh._

_Anyway, first up I want to say this; I'm sorry I've been away so long. I got… side-tracked. And it's kinda difficult fixing a shuttle in a place that has yet to grasp long distance space travel. So… yeah, sorry. That's all I can say, and I know it's never going to make up for everything I missed, but… I hope you can forgive me for being away for so long._

_Second, I really don't think this ship will last for long, and from the looks of things, I'm somewhere around the edge of Nanairo. Looks like Sector Y, but I can't be sure. I'm going to try and reach Ziba, and if I can't, I'll try to get to Himuro, at least._

_If I make it to Ziba, I'll see if I can catch a ride to Kollin ASAP, and if I can't… well… I'm going to need a ride home, I suppose. Hope you don't mind picking my sorry ass off that hunk of ice._

_Also… do me a favor and tell Liz I'm sorry, kay? She's gonna sock me to the jaw when I show up after so long either way, but I'd rather she not be TOO angry when I see her… If you can tell her now, that should take a bit of the edge off from her temper. At least a little bit… I hope…_

_Gotta log off for the moment, but I promise I'll be home soon!_

_Ja ne._

_-Rex_

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><p>For a long moment, the orange-haired NPP officer didn't move. Hell, he didn't even blink, as though that would make the message disappear, somehow. Eventually, he had to blink to prevent his eyes from drying out, but no matter how many times he blinked, the message didn't fade away.<p>

It was still there…

It was still…

There…

It was…

Still…

There…

It…

Was…

Still…

There…

"…ha… haha… ahahaha!"

And Rallen laughed. He laughed so hard that tears sprung to his eyes. Laughed so hard that his legs soon gave out under him and he collapsed to the floor in a heap as he clutched the portable close to his chest, his shoulders shaking and a big, relieved grin on his face. It took him at least a full ten minutes to calm down and by then, he was choking on hiccups as his tears splashed down upon the ground. He wasn't crying because he was sad, for once, and that was why he didn't bother trying to stop them from flowing; he was just so _relieved_ that he **had** to cry.

"…he's… he's alive… Rex… Rex is… brother… hahaha… he's alive… he's alive! HELL YES! I KNEW IT! AHAHAHA! I **KNEW** HE WOULDN'T KICK THE BUCKET LIKE THAT! I KNEW IT!"

Leaping back to his feet, Rallen pulled on his jumpsuit and boots, foregoing both his uniform's jacket and the gauntlets for once, snagged up his portable from where he'd left it and took off running down the hallway, his boots slamming against the floor and the sound bounced off from the wall. He didn't care if anyone heard him running through the halls. For all he cared he could make enough noise to wake the dead and it wouldn't be loud enough for him.

He wanted to cry out. He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream until the entire planet… the entire system heard him.

His brother, Rex, was alive and he was coming home!

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><p><strong>AN: My mind is being really weird with me recently... One moment I'm in the TWEWY mood, and suddenly I'm back in Spectrobes. What the hell?**

**Anyway, for those of you who already read "Confidant" and know who Rex and Liz are, this is, by no means, what really happened to Rex. This is an idea that was thrown my way and I have one other I want to try to work with, but I'm doing this one first. Also, from this point on, I'm going to be making chapters "a" and "b". Both are, technically, the same thing, but there are subtle differences in what happens that will determine the outcome of the story. Whichever you guys will prefer, I can't be sure, but I hope you enjoy at least one side of the story.**

**Edit: Yeah, I saw a few things I wasn't satisfied with so I changed a few things around. Nothing major, though I did correct the spelling errors I made that I didn't find earlier (I started this on my tablet, and that doesn't have spellcheck, so I usually don't find those until much later).  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 1a

_**Chapter 1a: Making the errand**_

"LIZ! LIZ WAKE UP!" Rallen cried out as he pounded on the door to Liz's dorm. He couldn't care if he woke up anyone else; it was more important to him to get the news to Liz. Who cared if everyone heard him?

Rallen was about to shout again, when the door disappeared from beneath his fist with which he had been pounding on it. And in the doorway stood a very sleepy, and rather annoyed, Liz Marks. Her white-blonde hair looked a little messy, though not all that much, even if the longer locks hanging past her face were slightly sticking to the corner of her mouth. She had her traditional eye patch covering her eye, but it looked a little crooked, possibly because of her trying to fix it while she was half asleep, and her only usable eye was watching him from behind a half-shut eyelid.

"…Rallen, it's 3:30 in the morning… couldn't it wait just a few hours?" Liz mumbled as she reached up to rub the dust from her eye.

"Sorry Liz but no it couldn't!" Rallen said in one breath, letting himself into the room.

Liz only sighed and shut the door, walking after Rallen. "Alright… I'll bite… what's got you so excited?"

Rallen couldn't keep the grin off his face as he held out his portable messenger to her, already having the last message he received that day. "Read this!"

"…Rallen, you woke me up just to proofread a message to Rex?"

"Just read it, Liz! Please!"

Liz gave Rallen a dry look, which was rather impressive with only one eye, before she sighed and rubbed her temple. "Fine, fine… I'll read it… but I swear if it's not important…"

"It is, I swear!"

The Commander didn't seem to be the least bit convinced, however, even as she took over the handheld and started reading silently. Rallen watched as her expression turned from one of confusion to surprise, then to shock, before becoming an expression that was oddly blank. He watched the motion of her eye and realized that she was rereading the message again and again, as though she were afraid that what she read was, somehow, a dream. Not that he blamed her; he'd had the same kind of reaction when he first read it, after all.

"…Rallen."

"Yeah…?"

"Could you get me a chair, please?"

Rallen didn't question it, having a feeling what she wanted it for, and ran to collect a chair from the lounge, then ran back and set it down behind Liz just in time before she could drop to the ground. She let herself drop down onto the chair, one of her hands holding her head, fingers placed upon her temple. He wanted to say something, but he wasn't too sure what to say. With Liz's expression still being relatively blank, it was difficult to say what she was thinking. That was probably something she had learned when becoming Commander; don't let your emotions show too much. Show enough, just not too much.

"…Rallen."

"Yeah?"

"…this isn't your idea of a joke… is it?"

"…would this be something I'd joke about?"

"…I guess not…"

For several long moments, the dorm room was silent, and neither of the two dared to move, nor to break the silence. Rallen remained standing behind Liz, and because of this, it was a little hard to gauge her exact thoughts, but even if he was looking at her face, he probably wouldn't be able to tell much. Despite that Liz was almost like an older sister to Rallen (and maybe a little bit of a mother after his mom died), he still had difficulty with figuring out what the woman was thinking of.

"…he's… alive…"

When he heard those words being spoken, Rallen felt his mouth quirk up in a smile, and when he leaned over, he could see that Liz was trying (and failing) to keep her own smile (and tears) in check.

"Yeah… and the best news is…" Rallen started, which caused Liz to stop fighting against the smile that sought to play along her face. "He's coming home."

Liz was silent for a long moment, her smile seeming almost as relieved as his own had been only a few minutes ago. However, just then, she slowly closed the portable messenger, and held it up to Rallen. The orange-haired NPP officer blinked, but he took it anyway – and the second he took it back from her, Liz's hand clenched into a fist and her face twisted into a furious snarl.

"He better be!" she let out, immediately leaping to her feet and almost knocking the chair over and startling Rallen into backing away. "After all he's put us through, he _better_ be coming straight home or he's going to have more than my fist to his jaw to look forward to when I see him again! If he thinks he's gonna get off easy just by saying 'sorry' he's got another think coming! Just saying 'sorry' isn't enough in this situation! When I see him again he is SO going to pay for making us worry about his sorry hide and THEN he'll have something to be 'sorry' about!"

If Rallen hadn't noticed how, during her rant, Liz's tears had begun rolling down her cheek from her only visible eye, he might've actually flinched back. Having lived with Liz for almost 9 years already, Rallen was used to Liz's 'tantrums' every so often, but he knew right away that this tantrum was different from her usual furious fits; it was a façade to hide what she was really feeling at that specific time.

Quietly, Rallen set aside the portable on the table and walked over. Before she could start her rant anew, Rallen reached out and pulled the slightly taller woman into a hug, feeling her tense up in surprise. However, Rallen didn't even seem to care about that as he rested his forehead on her shoulder and shut his eyes. Like that, they stayed for a while, before Liz seemed to slump in his grasp, but he could feel her body start to shake subtly.

"That… idiot… that good for nothing… stupid… _idiot_…" Liz hissed out, before her legs gave out and she dropped to the ground, Rallen dropping down with her, still holding her in a hug from behind. "Damn him… stupid… idiot…"

Rallen didn't say anything for a while, but he did smile quietly. After a moment of waiting, he murmured: "But… you missed him… right?"

"…you kidding me? Of course I… I…" Liz choked out through her barely concealed sobs as she held onto his arm with one hand.

"It's… okay…" Rallen managed to get out, feeling his own tears forming in his own eyes again. "I… I missed him, too…"

"I didn't… dammit…" Liz grumbled out, wriggling a bit in Rallen's hold to turn around and pull the young man into a hug, keeping her eye shut tight, as though it would prevent her tears from falling.

It didn't, of course, but neither said anything about the tears they were both shedding. They merely sat there upon the ground, clinging to each other like lifelines, tears of relief escaping their tightly shut eyes and small, equally relieved and contented smiles on their faces.

"Tell your brother… if he pulls that again… I'm going to skin him alive…"

"Hahah… I'll tell him."

"You better… 'coz I'm not going to be held responsible if it happens."

"Heheh…"

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><p>Jeena had no idea what to expect when Commander Marks sent her a message at 6 in the morning to come by her office, when she and Rallen were supposed to be on leave, but she figured that something very urgent must've come up. So, despite that she was still dead tired, she walked down the halls, Komainu hurrying after her as she went, heading toward Liz's office.<p>

After Rallen had told her about Rex, he had also 'properly' introduced her to Liz, and the Commander had given Jeena permission to use the woman's first name when they were in private. And while Liz was known to be a little stern at times, she had always been a kind person to the rookies.

And she also struck Jeena as the kind of person who would be able to keep Rallen in line. Which was probably why she had been partnered up with his brother.

Upon arriving at the room, Jeena paused for a moment to take a deep breath, before she knocked politely. "Commander Marks, you wished to speak to me?"

"Door's open, Jeena. Come on in," Liz called out calmly.

As she stepped into the room, Jeena was a bit surprised - just a little - when she spotted Rallen already sitting in one of the chairs facing Liz's desk… and he seemed strangely happy about something. He was sitting with his hands behind his head, one leg slung over the other, already in full uniform. When Jeena walked in, he looked up and grinned at her, giving her a small wave as she walked over to sit in the other seat.

"So… what's the problem, Commander?" Jeena asked as Komainu jumped up into Rallen's lap, barking up to the other officer for attention, which was gladly provided.

"Jeen, I thought I said you could call me Liz a few times already," Liz chuckled out, a small smirk playing on her face. Now that she actually had a good look at Liz, though, she realized that she, too, seemed almost… well, not exactly happy, but she was definitely in a better than normal mood.

"Oh, I'm sorry… but I thought… I thought something urgent came up and…"

"Hey, chill out, Jeen," Rallen laughed out, scratching Komainu under his chin. "We just need to do a quick errand for Liz, that's all. Nothing really serious."

"An errand? What kind of errand?" Jeena asked wearily, unsure if she liked where this was going.

Liz allowed a chuckle. "I just need you two to pick someone up from Ziba. And in the event that he hasn't made it there, to fetch him on Himuro."

"Why Himuro? What would he have to do there?" Jeena asked, now thoroughly confused.

However, Liz merely smirked. "Rallen, why don't you tell her who you're picking up?"

Jeena quirked an eyebrow ad looked over to her partner strangely. Said partner, however, turned to her with a big grin.

"We're gonna pick Rex up!"

At that name, Jeena's eyes widened in surprise and hwr jaw droppsd slightly. However, she shook it off quickly and felt a smile pulling on her lips and trying to turn into a grin of its own as she realized just _why_ the two of them had seemed so… happy. They had every reason to be, after all.

"You… figured out where he went?" she asked finally, still unable to keep her smile off her face.

"Apparently, he's been out of the Nanairo system all this time with no way back. He only recently managed to return, possibly through one of the Portal Points, and this put him on the edge of Nanairo," Liz explained. "He'll be trying to reach Ziba with his ship, but he might end up on Himuro instead. And if he does…"

"He'll need a ride. I get it."

Liz nodded. "This is technically not an official mission. It's more of a personal request. Plus, Rallen would end up going there anyway even if I didn't say so," she said, causing Rallen to cry out "Hey!" and earning a few giggles from Jeena. "I'll let Grant know you're off the planet for a while, just in case. Now, do you two have any questions?"

"Nope!" Rallen quipped with a grin.

"None at all," Jeena confirmed with a nod.

"Alright. Then I'll see you when you get back. You're dismissed."

Both Officers nodded, looking at each other with similar smiles before getting up and heading out of the Commander's office. As they headed out however, neither of the two noticed the look on Liz's face as the door shut behind them.

"…"

Slowly, Liz turned to the window behind her and her expression became… almost worried.

She stood from her seat and walked over to the window, absently staring outside, her expression unchanging. After a moment, though, she reached out and placed one hand on the glass and found her gaze drawn more to her own reflection than what was seen outside.

"…Why do I feel like this is not going to end the way we want it to?" she whispered softly, lowering her head and resting her forehead to the window. "Rex… don't do anything stupid, you dolt… just wait wherever you are and let Rallen pick you up… Don't you _dare_ leaving us again before seeing either of us…"

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><p><strong>AN: Right... this is chapter a, and chapter b will be up shortly after. If you read both versions, you'll notice where each one is going, and then you can decide which one you're going to follow (first chapters won't be _much_ different), or follow both and see how they pan out. Well, either way, pick your poison and enjoy.**


	3. Chapter 1b

_**Chapter 1b: Making the errand**_

"LIZ! LIZ WAKE UP!" Rallen cried out as he pounded on the door to Liz's dorm. He couldn't care if he woke up anyone else; it was more important to him to get the news to Liz. Who cared if everyone heard him?

Rallen was about to shout again, when the door disappeared from beneath his fist with which he had been pounding on it. And in the doorway stood a very sleepy, and rather annoyed, Liz Marks. Her white-blonde hair looked a little messy, though not all that much, even if the longer locks hanging past her face were slightly sticking to the corner of her mouth. She had her traditional eye patch covering her eye, but it looked a little crooked, possibly because of her trying to fix it while she was half asleep, and her only usable eye was watching him from behind a half-shut eyelid.

"…Rallen, it's 3:30 in the morning… couldn't it wait just a few hours?" Liz mumbled as she reached up to rub the dust from her eye.

"Sorry Liz but no it couldn't!" Rallen said in one breath, letting himself into the room.

Liz only sighed and shut the door, walking after Rallen. "Alright… I'll bite… what's got you so excited?"

Rallen couldn't keep the grin off his face as he held out his portable messenger to her, already having the last message he received that day. "Read this!"

"…Rallen, you woke me up just to proofread a message to Rex?"

"Just read it, Liz! Please!"

Liz gave Rallen a dry look, which was rather impressive with only one eye, before she sighed and rubbed her temple. "Fine, fine… I'll read it… but I swear if it's not important…"

"It is, I swear!"

The Commander didn't seem to be the least bit convinced, however, even as she took over the handheld and started reading silently. Rallen watched as her expression turned from one of confusion to surprise, then to shock, before becoming an expression that was oddly blank. He watched the motion of her eye and realized that she was rereading the message again and again, as though she were afraid that what she read was, somehow, a dream. Not that he blamed her; he'd had the same kind of reaction when he first read it, after all.

"…Rallen."

"Yeah…?"

"Could you get me a chair, please?"

Rallen didn't question it, having a feeling what she wanted it for, and ran to collect a chair from the lounge, then ran back and set it down behind Liz just in time before she could drop to the ground. She let herself drop down onto the chair, one of her hands holding her head, fingers placed upon her temple. He wanted to say something, but he wasn't too sure what to say. With Liz's expression still being relatively blank, it was difficult to say what she was thinking. That was probably something she had learned when becoming Commander; don't let your emotions show too much. Show enough, just not too much.

"…Rallen."

"Yeah?"

"…this isn't your idea of a joke… is it?"

"…would this be something I'd joke about?"

"…I guess not…"

For several long moments, the dorm room was silent, and neither of the two dared to move, nor to break the silence. Rallen remained standing behind Liz, and because of this, it was a little hard to gauge her exact thoughts, but even if he was looking at her face, he probably wouldn't be able to tell much. Despite that Liz was almost like an older sister to Rallen (and maybe a little bit of a mother after his mom died), he still had difficulty with figuring out what the woman was thinking of.

"…he's… alive…"

When he heard those words being spoken, Rallen felt his mouth quirk up in a smile, and when he leaned over, he could see that Liz was trying (and failing) to keep her own smile (and tears) in check.

"Yeah… and the best news is…" Rallen started, which caused Liz to stop fighting against the smile that sought to play along her face. "He's coming home."

Liz was silent for a long moment, her smile seeming almost as relieved as his own had been only a few minutes ago. However, just then, she slowly closed the portable messenger, and held it up to Rallen. The orange-haired NPP officer blinked, but he took it anyway – and the second he took it back from her, Liz's hand clenched into a fist and her face twisted into a furious snarl.

"He better be!" she let out, immediately leaping to her feet and almost knocking the chair over and startling Rallen into backing away. "After all he's put us through, he _better_ be coming straight home or he's going to have more than my fist to his jaw to look forward to when I see him again! If he thinks he's gonna get off easy just by saying 'sorry' he's got another think coming! Just saying 'sorry' isn't enough in this situation! When I see him again he is SO going to pay for making us worry about his sorry hide and THEN he'll have something to be 'sorry' about!"

If Rallen hadn't noticed how, during her rant, Liz's tears had begun rolling down her cheek from her only visible eye, he might've actually flinched back. Having lived with Liz for almost 9 years already, Rallen was used to Liz's 'tantrums' every so often, but he knew right away that this tantrum was different from her usual furious fits; it was a façade to hide what she was really feeling at that specific time.

Quietly, Rallen set aside the portable on the table and walked over. Before she could start her rant anew, Rallen reached out and pulled the slightly taller woman into a hug, feeling her tense up in surprise. However, Rallen didn't even seem to care about that as he rested his forehead on her shoulder and shut his eyes. Like that, they stayed for a while, before Liz seemed to slump in his grasp, but he could feel her body start to shake subtly.

"That… idiot… that good for nothing… stupid… _idiot_…" Liz hissed out, before her legs gave out and she dropped to the ground, Rallen dropping down with her, still holding her in a hug from behind. "Damn him… stupid… idiot…"

Rallen didn't say anything for a while, but he did smile quietly. After a moment of waiting, he murmured: "But… you missed him… right?"

"…you kidding me? Of course I… I…" Liz choked out through her barely concealed sobs as she held onto his arm with one hand.

"It's… okay…" Rallen managed to get out, feeling his own tears forming in his own eyes again. "I… I missed him, too…"

"I didn't… dammit…" Liz grumbled out, wriggling a bit in Rallen's hold to turn around and pull the young man into a hug, keeping her eye shut tight, as though it would prevent her tears from falling.

It didn't, of course, but neither said anything about the tears they were both shedding. They merely sat there upon the ground, clinging to each other like lifelines, tears of relief escaping their tightly shut eyes and small, equally relieved and contented smiles on their faces.

"Tell your brother… if he pulls that again… I'm going to skin him alive…"

"Hahah… I'll tell him."

"You better… 'coz I'm not going to be held responsible if it happens."

"Heheh…"

* * *

><p>Jeena had no idea what to expect when Commander Marks sent her a message at 6 in the morning to come by her office, when she and Rallen were supposed to be on leave, but she figured that something very urgent must've come up. So, despite that she was still dead tired, she walked down the halls, Komainu hurrying after her as she went, heading toward Liz's office.<p>

After Rallen had told her about Rex, he had also 'properly' introduced her to Liz, and the Commander had given Jeena permission to use the woman's first name when they were in private. And while Liz was known to be a little stern at times, she had always been a kind person to the rookies.

And she also struck Jeena as the kind of person who would be able to keep Rallen in line. Which was probably why she had been partnered up with his brother.

Upon arriving at the room, Jeena paused for a moment to take a deep breath, before she knocked politely. "Commander Marks, you wished to speak to me?"

"Door's open, Jeena. Come on in," Liz called out calmly.

As she stepped into the room, Jeena was a bit surprised - just a little - when she spotted Rallen already sitting in one of the chairs facing Liz's desk… and he seemed strangely happy about something. He was sitting with his hands behind his head, one leg slung over the other, already in full uniform. When Jeena walked in, he looked up and grinned at her, giving her a small wave as she walked over to sit in the other seat.

"So… what's the problem, Commander?" Jeena asked as Komainu jumped up into Rallen's lap, barking up to the other officer for attention, which was gladly provided.

"Jeen, I thought I said you could call me Liz a few times already," Liz chuckled out, a small smirk playing on her face. Now that she actually had a good look at Liz, though, she realized that she, too, seemed almost… well, not exactly happy, but she was definitely in a better than normal mood.

"Oh, I'm sorry… but I thought… I thought something urgent came up and…"

"Hey, chill out, Jeen," Rallen laughed out, scratching Komainu under his chin. "We just need to do a quick errand for Liz, that's all. Nothing really serious."

"An errand? What kind of errand?" Jeena asked wearily, unsure if she liked where this was going.

Liz allowed a chuckle. "I just need you two to pick someone up from Ziba. And in the event that he hasn't made it there, to fetch him on Himuro."

"Why Himuro? What would he have to do there?" Jeena asked, now thoroughly confused.

However, Liz merely smirked. "Rallen, why don't you tell her who you're picking up?"

Jeena quirked an eyebrow ad looked over to her partner strangely. Said partner, however, turned to her with a big grin.

"We're gonna pick Rex up!"

At that name, Jeena's eyes widened in surprise and her jaw dropped slightly. However, she shook it off quickly and felt a smile pulling on her lips and trying to turn into a grin of its own as she realized just _why_ the two of them had seemed so… happy. They had every reason to be, after all.

"You… figured out where he went?" she asked finally, still unable to keep her smile off her face.

"Apparently, he's been out of the Nanairo system all this time with no way back. He only recently managed to return, possibly through one of the Portal Points, and this put him on the edge of Nanairo," Liz explained. "He'll be trying to reach Ziba with his ship, but he might end up on Himuro instead. And if he does…"

"He'll need a ride. I get it."

Liz nodded. "This is technically not an official mission. It's more of a personal request. Plus, Rallen would end up going there anyway even if I didn't say so," she said, causing Rallen to cry out "Hey!" and earning a few giggles from Jeena. "I'll let Grant know you're off the planet for a while, just in case. Now, do you two have any questions?"

"Nope!" Rallen quipped with a grin.

"None at all," Jeena confirmed with a nod.

"Alright. Then I'll see you when you get back. You're dismissed."

Both Officers nodded, looking at each other with similar smiles before getting up and heading out of the Commander's office. As they headed out, Liz finally allowed herself to smile brightly in relief, not really caring if the action pulled at her skin that was painful because of the burnt skin under her eye patch.

"Hahaha… it's about time, you _dolt!_ You better not disappear on us before we see you again, or else I'm going to make you live to regret it!"

Spinning her chair around, she stood up and walked over to her window and looked outside, her arms loosely crossed over her chest.

"You better have a good excuse for being late, too… or you're _really_ going to get hurt."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And that's chapter b done. As you may have noticed, only the last part with Liz was different, but starting next chapter, things are going to be changing throughout the chapter including conversations between Rallen and Jeena.**


	4. Chapter 2a

_**Chapter 2a: Waiting for You**_

* * *

><p>By 6:30, Rallen peeled their cruiser out of the hangar and they were en route to Ziba. With their cruiser's new engine, they weren't expecting the trip to last very long, but it was long enough for them to have a little time to themselves to think.<p>

Rallen appeared a little lost in thought, though he kept them on course just fine, and Jeena was equally focused on her own thoughts. Hers mostly revolved around what they were going to do once they met up with Rex. She also wondered what Rallen would do when it came to that, though she could hazard a guess, of course.

"…Hey, Rallen?"

"Hm?"

"When you see your brother again, what are you going to say to him?"

At the question, Rallen actually blinked in slight surprise, and it took him a few moments before he actually responded.

"Well… honestly, I'm not sure…" Rallen admitted. "I mean, I'm happy he's back and all… but… he _did_ keep us waiting for a while."

Jeena nodded in understanding. "So… you wanna punch him for that?"

"Tempting… but I think Liz is gonna want dibs on that one."

Jeena allowed a giggle at those words. "That's her way of keeping your brother in line, I guess."

"Kinda," Rallen chuckled out. "Then again, Rex intentionally asks for it half the time by calling her 'Lizzy'. She hates that nickname."

"Then why does he call her that?"

"To get a response out of her, really. Liz wasn't really… well, an open kind of person, I suppose you could say."

Jeena nodded in understanding. While Liz wasn't necessarily a bad person, she didn't really strike Jeena as the type of person who laughed an awful lot, though of course, the same could be said for Grant, so that could be a Commander thing. Though if what Rallen said was true, then Liz was probably the way she was because she had always been like that.

'Maybe Rex coming back will make her smile more often…' Jeena wondered absently.

"…what was wrong with her, though?" Rallen whispered suddenly under his breath, making Jeena look over curiously.

"Rallen?" she called out.

However, the other NPP Officer shook his head. "Nothing. I just thought… no. No never mind. Was probably nothing…"

"…Okay, if you say so," Jeena mumbled, sighing softly as she realized that Rallen wasn't going to tell her. She made a mental note to question him about it later, though.

If Rallen was aware of her being suspicious of his earlier words, he didn't show it. He was a little too preoccupied with going over the conversation with Liz again after Jeena had come in. Despite the Commander's almost joking attitude (a rarity in and of itself), he couldn't help but feel like that, too, had been a façade of some kind. Something about her behavior had just been… off.

Or maybe that was just his nerves seeing things that weren't really there.

Mentally agreeing to that thought, Rallen focused back on the path ahead of them. He wanted to get to Ziba ASAP before his negative thinking won out over his usual positive thinking.

He didn't want to think that… just maybe…

Rallen mentally smacked himself in the head before the thought could finish, forcing his mind away from _those _thoughts.

'Wait for us, Rex… We're coming to pick you up, so just stay put for a little longer!'

* * *

><p>Before long, they made it to Ziba, but when they did, they remembered something that they should have remembered from the start; Ziba was split into two, meaning that there were two spaceports from where shuttles left for Kollin. Which also meant they would have to either split up their search, or have one of the ports contact the other and request for any shuttles for Kollin to hold off their launch until they could find Rex.<p>

"So he doesn't know we're coming to pick him up?" Jeena asked as they circled the planet.

"No… I actually wanted to surprise him, and Liz thought it was a good idea, so…" Rallen offered lamely, rubbing the back of his neck.

Jeena sighed softly, rolling her eyes. Before they could decide on their course of action, though, they received a call from HQ. The pair of Officers exchanged a glance before Jeena put the connection through, both of them realizing that it was either Grant, or Liz.

And as it turned out, it was the latter.

"Hey, Liz. 'Sup?" Rallen asked casually.

"_Nothing much, Rallen. Are you two near Ziba, yet?_"

"We just came in range, actually," Jeena said with a nod. "We're just debating on where to land, considering…"

"_I thought as much. I managed to convince the officials at the spaceports to hold off the ships to Kollin for a while, and they'll let me know if someone matching your brother's description shows up at the register._"

"Cool! That'll save us some work! Thanks, Liz!" said the orange-haired man with a smile.

"_Just get your brother home safely…_" Liz said, but her only visible seemed to darken with… something

"…? You okay, Liz?" Rallen asked, a little worried.

"…_Yeah. I'm fine. I just… have something important on my mind, that's all. In any event, I'll let you know if and where he shows up. Marks out._"

And then the connection was cut.

Rallen blinked, before he frowned. "Huh… must be really big if she says it like that."

"Like what?" Jeena asked, not understanding what Rallen was talking about.

"She said "Marks out', right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"She only uses that when it's _really _serious. Otherwise she'd just say what Rex usually says when signing off."

Jeena gave a quiet 'aaahh' as she nodded. "I see… well, it might be something that came up after we left."

"Yeah, maybe. Well! Anywho! Let's mosey!"

* * *

><p>When they landed on Ziba, the place was as busy as ever, and their first step after docking their cruiser was to visit the spaceport's CEO to ask aout anyone matching Rex's description had recently come in. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a dead end, at least for the moment, so the pair of NPP Officers opted to wait outside for Rex.<p>

After almost an hour of waiting, Jeena finally broke the silence.

"Hey, Rallen, you said your brother was your only family besides your mother, right?"

"Hm? Yeah, he was. Why?" Rallen asked curiously, leaning back on his arms casually.

"Well, I was wondering… you don't have to answer, by the way, if you don't want to, but what about your father? What happened to him?"

Rallen blinked, twice, before he looked up to the skies, furrowing his brows in thought. "…You know what? I don't know. I don't actually remember him, and Rex and mom never really spoke much about him."

"You never asked?"

"Oh I asked, but I didn't get an answer. Mom… well, mom would start to cry if I asked, and Rex tried to avoid or change the subject every time. So… after a while I just… stopped asking."

Jeena watched him for a moment longer, before she leaned forward with her arms on her knees. "I see… you think he might be dead?"

"Maybe…" Rallen murmured, moving forward as well, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his hands dangle. "Actually… Rex noticed that I'd stopped asking not long after and he told me… 'once you're a full-fledged NPP officer, I'll tell you all you want about dad'."

"…I guess you never found out, huh?"

"…No. But, quite honestly, I don't really care much anymore."

That caught Jeena's attention immediately and she leaned forward to look at Rallen's face, but Rallen wasn't looking at her.

"…After he said that to me, I got to thinking… I don't know anything about my dad, but, in all honesty, I guess I considered Rex to be a bit like a father. Sure, he was my brother, and I knew that, but… I dunno, it could be the age difference between us, but I always felt like Rex could just as well have been my dad. He was always rather… protective, but he also knew when to back up enough to let me do whatever I could by myself." Rallen brought his hands together briefly and gave a small sigh. "Sometimes… I'd sit in my room and say to myself… 'I don't need a dad. As long as I have Rex, I'll be fine'."

"…Rallen…" Jeena frowned sadly. She had never really lost someone before, and while the aftermath of their adventure in Kaio came close, it was nowhere near what Rallen must've gone through when his brother disappeared. Let alone after his mother also passed away three years later. "…I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

"Ah, 's okay, Jeena," Rallen said with a small grin as he pushed up. "You know me; I'm not going to sit around and mope about what I've lost! Besides, Rex is coming home soon, so I don't got the time to be sad!"

Jeena blinked, but then she smiled…

_**BEEP**_

Rallen almost jumped in surprise when his gauntlet beeped loudly, before he blinked in surprise. "That was…?" he choked out, reaching under his gauntlet and pulling out the portable he carried with him under it. "Rex," he mumbled, quickly flicking it open, even as Jeena moved over quickly to watch over his shoulder.

What they read, however, made their blood freeze.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Subject: None<strong>_

_Meido_

* * *

><p>And that was it.<p>

The two Officers stared at the single word for a few moments longer, before they looked at each other slowly. And then, as though thinking as one, they leaped from their seat and dashed back toward the hangar as fast as they could.

Panic was gripping at Rallen's heart as they rushed into their cruiser again. 'Why one word? Don't tell me… Don't do this to us, Rex… please!'

* * *

><p><strong>AN: It should be obvious where this half of the story is going... If you wanna continue**** with this side, be my guest. I'll put up both sides either way, so...**


	5. Chapter 2b

_**Chapter 2b: Waiting for You**_

* * *

><p>By 6:30, Rallen peeled their cruiser out of the hangar and they were en route to Ziba. With their cruiser's new engine, they weren't expecting the trip to last very long, but it was long enough for them to have a little time to themselves to think.<p>

Rallen appeared a little lost in thought, though he kept them on course just fine, and Jeena was equally focused on her own thoughts. Hers mostly revolved around what they were going to do once they met up with Rex. She also wondered what Rallen would do when it came to that, though she could hazard a guess, of course.

"…Hey, Rallen?"

"Hm?"

"When you see your brother again, what are you going to say to him?"

At the question, Rallen actually blinked in slight surprise, and it took him a few moments before he actually responded.

"Well… I guess I'd probably give 'im a 'welcome home' hug… and then I'd probably hit him for being away so long."

Jeena smiled a bit at Rallen's comment. "Really? You'd do that just like that?"

"Well… no. No, Liz probably wants dibs on the first punch," Rallen joked, making Jeena burst out in a fit of giggles.

"Haha… why doesn't that surprise me? Was she always so violent around your brother?"

"Only when he called her 'Lizzy'. Man, she _really_ hated that nickname back in the day… still does, actually," Rallen chuckled out.

Jeena allowed a small smile at those words, before she got to thinking. "Hey, Rallen. Her name is 'Liz Marks', right? Is Liz short for Elizabeth or something similar?"

"Huh? Um… nnnnooo, I don't think so. Her name's just 'Liz' as far as I know…" After a few moments, though, he frowned. "Then again, she never really told me outright if that was her full name… she tends to avoid the subject whenever I ask her about it."

"Hmm… might be a sensitive subject for her, then…" Jeena mused. "…Though, I have to ask… if Liz hated to be called 'Lizzy', why did your brother call her that?"

"Well, he said it was to get any kind of response out of her," her partner explained as he steered around a stray piece of space debris. "Back then, it was very rare for Liz to show any kind of emotion at all. Though… Rex did mention that she seemed to loosen up considerably whenever he brought her home to see mom and me."

"He actually took her to your house like that?" Jeena asked curiously, though she almost smacked herself for asking. She made it sound as though those two had actually been going out, which, according to what she had found, wasn't the case.

"Yeah. …heheh."

"What? What's so funny?" Jeena asked in surprise.

"I just remember… the first time Rex brought her home… I actually asked her 'Are you brother's girlfriend?'"

Jeena gawked for a few moments, before she burst out laughing along with Rallen. "You _really _asked that?"

"Yep. Well… I think I was about 6 at the time… maybe 7… but yeah. That's the first thing I asked her."

"And what did she say?"

"She said she was 'just his partner'," Rallen said with a small shrug. "If you ask me… there was something more going on between those two, though…"

At that, Jeena quirked a curious eyebrow, but she also smirked a bit cheekily. "What makes you say that?"

"Ah, just a hunch, really," the orange-haired Officer said casually, but the grin on his face said he knew more than he was letting on. However, Jeena only rolled her eyes and went back to her own console, figuring he'd tell her later.

Rallen, however, turned to thinking about what gave him the idea about Rex and Liz's possible 'relationship'; a conversation between him and Rex a few weeks before he disappeared…

"_Hey, Rallen, come here for a sec."_

"_Huh? What's wrong?"_

"_Oh, nothing. You know that it's Lizzy's b-day in a few weeks?"_

"_Eh? It is? Why didn't she say so? I still gotta get her a present!"_

"_Whoa, easy, kiddo, hahah. Look, I'll help you with finding Lizzy a present, but first I need to ask you something else."_

"…_? Like what?"_

"_Well… say, if Lizzy came to live with us and she became your big sister, what would you say to that?"_

"…_Rex?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Are you gonna ask Lizzy to marry you?"_

"_GAH! Don't make it sound like that's the only option!"_

"_But you are, right?"_

"_Rallen!"_

"_Brother, your face is all red!"_

"_Nrgh! You little! Get over here!"_

"_Wah! Rex that's not faaaaaii-AAAHAHAHAH! REX! STOOOHAHAHAP IT!"_

Rex had never brought the subject up again, and he threatened Rallen with more tickle torture whenever he asked, so he had never asked again. But Rallen was _sure _that Rex had been planning to ask Liz, eventually. But… he had never managed to, because that was when he had disappeared, only a few days before Liz's birthday.

'Well… guess you got some making up to do, Rex… unless you want her to be _super_ pissed off at you.'

* * *

><p>Before long, they made it to Ziba, but when the did, they remembered something that they should have remembered from the start; Ziba was split into two, meaning that there were two ports from where shuttles left for Kollin. Which also meant they would have to either split up their search, or have one of the ports contact the other and request for any shuttles for Kollin to hold off their launch until they could find Rex.<p>

"So he doesn't know we're coming to pick him up?" Jeena asked as they circled the planet.

"No… I actually wanted to surprise him, and Liz thought it was a good idea, so…" Rallen offered lamely, rubbing the back of his neck.

Jeena sighed softly, rolling her eyes. Before they could decide on their course of action, though, they received a call feom HQ. The pair of Officers exchanged a glance before putting the connection through, realizing that it was either Grant, or Liz.

And as it turned out, it was the latter.

"Hey, Liz. 'Sup?" Rallen asked casually.

"_Nothing much, Rallen. Are you two near Ziba, yet?_"

"We just came in range, actually," Jeena said with a nod. "We're just debating on where to land, considering…"

"_I thought as much. I managed to convince the officials at the spaceports to hold off the ships to Kollin for a while, and they'll let me know if someone matching your brother's description shows up at the register._"

"Cool! That'll save us some work! Thanks, Liz!" said the orange-haired man with a smile.

"_You just get down there and pick up that dolt, Rallen. Ja ne._"

And then the connection was cut off and Rallen chuckled. "Heh. Well, looks like we won't have to worry so much about where to go, eh?"

Jeena merely nodded with a smile. "Right. Let's go then."

"You got it!"

* * *

><p>When they landed on Ziba, the place was as busy as ever, and their first step after docking their cruiser was to visit the spaceport's CEO to ask aout anyone matching Rex's description had recently come in. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a dead end, at least for the moment, so the pair of NPP Officers opted to wait outside for Rex.<p>

After almost an hour of waiting, Jeena finally broke the silence.

"Hey, Rallen, what has your brother been up to, anyway? I know you and Liz said he was out of Nanairo, but…"

At those words, Rallen blinked in surprise and looked to Jeena from where he was leaning back on his arms. He waited a few more moments, blinking a couple more times, before he quipped: "You know what… I totally forgot that."

Sitting up, Rallen pulled out his portable from where he kept it under his gauntlet. "…Hey, get a little closer will you?" he said, gesturing for her to come closer.

Jeena blinked, but did just that as Rallen flicked the small portable messenger open and pulled its stylus out, tapping on the first message that hadn't been read yet. As it opened, Rallen set it down on his knee and pressed one more button, bringing up a holographic screen for them to properly read the entire message.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Subject: None<strong>_

_Hey Rallen…_

_Tell me something; what exactly happened? Last thing I remember is the cruiser blowing up on me and Lizzy, and the next thing I know, I'm on some kind of planet I've never been to before._

_Either I've been asleep for forever in the damn pod, or I'm not in Nanairo anymore…_

_How I'm even able to survive here, I'm not fully sure. This entire planet appears to be surrounded by a thick blanket of what I think is gas, and while the people here are kind enough to me, they treat me as though as though I'm some kind of holy being that 'fell from the sky'. I have a feeling they've never even heard of 'long distance space travel' before, so I don't think I'd be able to get anything for that out of them. In fact, they've never even heard of 'Nanairo' here…_

_Really, just where did I wind up already?_

_Anyway, I'm gonna see if I can somehow get my escape pod to serve me as a shuttle back home, somehow, and I'll do my best to be back home ASAP. Tell Lizzy, too, okay? I'll try to be back in time for her big day, and I'm not planning to miss it._

_Ja ne._

_-Rex_

* * *

><p>"…Huh, doesn't sound like any place in Nanairo, that's for sure…" Rallen murmured, and Jeena nodded.<p>

"You're right… There's no planets in Nanairo that are surrounded by a blanket of gas… except for Meido, but I think that's a little different than what Rex is referring to."

"Plus, Meido doesn't have anyone living on it…" Rallen pointed out.

"That too…"

It wasn't until Rallen moved over to select the next message that Jeena realized just how _close_ they actually were, and while Rallen didn't seem the least bit affected, Jeena actually felt her face flush slightly. As Rallen was about to select the next message, however…

_**BEEP**_

Rallen and Jeena yowled in surprise when the handheld beeped, almost causing Rallen to drop it, though Jeena managed to grab it before it could fall. After taking a deep breath, she handed it back to Rallen.

"Whew… thanks, Jeen. That was sudden…" Rallen mumbled, taking the handheld, which was now glowing a deep blue. Scrolling all the way up, he noticed there was a new message (obviously). "Looks like Rex has something to say…" he murmured, tapping the message.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Subject: May I say I hate this ship now?<strong>_

_Can I say something real quick? I hate this damn ship. Not only does it not last as long as it should, but it also refuses to land properly…_

_Okay, might be my own fault since I'm not a full-fledged technician when it comes to fixing shuttles._

_Ugh, anyway, back on track; my ship crashed, to put it bluntly. And that's not the worst part of the news, I'm afraid… from what I can tell… I'm on Meido. Now last time I was in Nanairo, there wasn't any ship fast enough to make it there, so, I won't lie and say I'm expecting you to show up to get me outta this hellhole… Would be nice, plus appreciated, but, well…_

_I'm gonna try and fix this damn thing back up and see if I can get outta here myself, but I don't like how my chances are looking._

_Better get to work, then._

_Ja ne._

_-Rex_

* * *

><p>"He's on Meido?" Rallen and Jeena exclaimed at the same time, exchanging a quick glance, before they leaped up and dashed back to the hangar.<p>

'Shit shit shit! Rex, just hold on! We're coming for you!'

* * *

><p><strong>AN: About the gas planet... that's an idea my boyfriend tossed my way. That's about all I have for it, though. If anyone wants to make a fic about how Rex deals on that planet, be my guest (just let me know when/if you put it up).**


	6. Chapter 3a

_**Chapter 3a: From the Darkened Planet**_

* * *

><p>The first time they had traveled to Meido had been, needless to say, nerve wrecking on both their accounts. Neither of the two had been that willing to return there again, though they were well aware they had no real choice in the matter. It was dark, cold, and foreboding, as the sun's rays were unable to reach it properly, turning the place into a barren wasteland where no being had a chance of survival. How the place had oxygen at all, no one was certain, but in a way, it was good it did. But that still didn't make the place any more attractive to visit.<p>

At this point in time, however, Rallen and Jeena barely thought twice about heading there. They had an actual reason to go there now, after all;

To pick Rex up and get him home.

* * *

><p>The second the ship touched down, both Rallen and Jeena leaped back to their feet and were out the cruiser in the next instant, though Jeena took a moment more to get Komainu out from the incubator. Jeena had never seen Rallen fly their cruiser as fast as he had just a moment ago. Not even when they were facing off against an army of Krawl had Rallen ever forced their cruiser to go so fast. Of course, she hadn't mentioned it, since she knew fully well <em>why<em> he'd gone so fast in the first place.

Once he had dashed a short distance, he stopped and brought his hands up to create a makeshift megaphone and shouted out: "REEEEEEX!"

They waited for a moment, but all they picked up was the slight echo of Rallen's own shout. And Rallen cursed, rather venomously at that, but for once, Jeena didn't say anything about it.

"Dammit! Where… where is he?" he hissed out under his breath, clenching his fists tightly as he tried very hard to keep himself from dashing off. Last thing they needed was to split up at this point.

"I don't know… let's go look for him."

"Yeah…"

Rallen took a few deep breaths, trying hard to calm himself down, before they began to walk slowly.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long before they discovered a long, deep trench across the ground, leading to a massive pit that Rallen only vaguely remembered from two years ago. It was a place he had avoided during his first trip there in favor of actually finding the leader of the Krawl. As he walked over slowly and looked down, he had to squint in order to see anything down below them, and even then, what he saw was limited; it was just that dark.<p>

"This can't be good…" Rallen murmured.

"We have to find a way down there… if this trench belongs to what I think it does…"

"I know…" Rallen mumbled, even if he really wished it wasn't true.

'Please… Rex, don't… don't die on us… you just got back so… please… don't do this to us!"

As Rallen and Jeena looked around for a safe way down the pit, though, Komainu turned to the side with a curious sound, before he barked and bounded off.

"Komainu!" Jeena cried out when she realized that the child Spectrobe had run off – again – making Rallen look up.

"Oh not again! Komainu! Get back here!" Rallen cried out as the pair hurried after the tiny Spectrobe.

Komainu, however, didn't listen, and instead ran on ahead of them, before he hopped over a rock and into a cave that had been hidden partially in shadows.

"Huh? Is that a…?" Rallen queried, moving over and peeking into the cave.

"Looks like some sort of cave… do you think?"

"One way to find out, right?"

After exchanging a nod with each other, the pair climbed over the rock Komainu had cleared earlier, stepping into the cave slowly, though they were forced to walk sideways because of the narrow entrance. As they went, Jeena produced a small orb of light that served as a flashlight, allowing them to see where they were going.

"Kinda cramped… how did he get through here?" Rallen grumbled.

Just as Jeena got ready to answer, Komainu gave a bark from a little further down the cave, making the two Officers jump at the sound (since it echoed around and sounded a lot louder than it should), before they hurried along.

As they closed in on the source of the bark, though…

"…oh, hey little one," said a man's voice, which was followed by a happy sound from Komainu as he was (presumably) being petted by the owner of the voice. "Where did you come from?"

Rallen's eyes widened in surprise when the voice registered in his mind and he immediately increased his pace, almost leaving Jeena behind.

"R-Rallen!" she called out, though her voice was barely audible as Rallen came out in a wider portion of the cave and shouted out: "REX!"

The shout caused the crouching figure to blink in surprise, before the man looked up, a single orange-golden eye gazing up to Rallen, the other hidden behind long, bright orange colored bangs.

"…wha… Ra… Rallen?" the man got out, rising to his feet.

Rallen stood for a moment, panting for breath slightly from rushing in like that, but slowly, his mouth quirked up in a grin as tears threatened to roll down from his eyes. And, just as Jeena made it into the cave, Rallen shouted out: "REX!" and was halfway the cave floor and flying into the other man's (surprised) arms.

"Oof! …how did… when…?" Rex managed to get out, even as he brought up his arms, a bit awkwardly, almost, to return the hug. "When… when did you… no wait… how… how did you…?"

"We… we came this way the moment we got your message, you… you dolt!" Rallen chuckled out, still refusing to let go of the taller man.

"…you…" Rex started to say, blinking slightly, before a small smile spread over his face. "Did you just call me 'dolt'? How long have you been hanging out with Liz to pick up on _that?_"

"N-nine years, almost," Rallen managed to get out, still struggling against his tears, even if it was impossible to keep the grin off his face.

Jeena merely watched the two men with a small, relieved smile of her own, taking a moment to look the taller man over. And she immediately realized there was no way for her to mistake Rex for anything other than Rallen's brother.

He was roughly a foot and a half taller than Rallen, but his hair was the same deep orange, though it was longer than Jeena recalled seeing on Rallen's photo's, as it hung down his back, reaching just past his waist, and the bangs obscured his right eye, which was identical in coloring to Rallen's, only it was slightly more slanted. The clothes he wore were definitely not from anywhere in Nanairo, though they looked slightly similar in design to what she remembered from the Kaio system. Simple black trousers tucked into a pair of fur-lined boots, a deep blue, long-sleeved tunic held together with a belt, which also held a supply bag of some kind on the left, a pair of heavy gloves protecting his hands, and a travel cloak slung around his shoulders.

After giving the two brothers a few moments more to themselves, Jeena finally cleared her throat, though she couldn't help but smile.

Rallen blinked at the sound, before he seemed to remember that Jeena was also still there and (reluctantly, by the looks of it) pulled away from his brother. "Oh, Rex, this is Jeena. She's my partner in NPP."

Rex looked over to Jeena curiously, cocking his head a little to the side, before he smiled at his brother. "Heh… NPP, huh? So you actually made it on your own?"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rallen demanded immediately with an indignant frown, which earned him a hair ruffle from Rex. "Gah!"

"I'm joking, Rall," Rex chuckled out, before turning to Jeena as she made her way over with a small giggle. "Well… in any case, nice to meet you, Jeena. As you may have heard already, I'm Rex," he said calmly, holding out his hand for the girl to shake.

Jeena smiled right back and accepted the handshake. "Nice to meet you as well, sir."

"…You really don't have to call me 'sir'…" Rex mumbled. "I feel old enough already…"

As Rex said that, though, Rallen couldn't stop the small frown coming on his face. He hadn't noticed it right away (his relief at Rex being okay overriding his observation skills), but Rex was acting a little… off. He couldn't place it right away, but _something_ about Rex's behavior was different from what he remembered.

Before he could ask, though, Komainu gave a small wail, drawing Rex's attention back to the Spectrobe at his feet. Crouching down for a moment, Rex petted Komainu while asking: "By the way… who… or what… is this little guy?"

"Komainu," Rallen said calmly, crouching down as well to pick up the small Spectrobe. "He's… well. He's a Spectrobe."

"…? What… is a Spectrobe?" Rex asked, tilting his head to the side. "Just how much did I really miss?"

"Maybe it's better if we explain that to you back at the cruiser," Jeena offered.

"…Yeah, good idea," Rex agreed with a nod.

* * *

><p>A little later, the small group was back in the patrol cruiser, Rex sitting on one of the sleeping pods while Rallen and Jeena took the chairs in the room. While they didn't have the time or the leisure to explain everything about the Spectrobes, the Krawl, or even Krux, Rallen and Jeena gave Rex a quick, short overview of the basis.<p>

"So these… 'Spectrobes'… are used to fight those 'Krawl'… and when they're no longer needed in one system they fall asleep and… fossilize… Did I get that right?" Rex asked slowly.

"Yeah, that's about it…" Rallen said with a nod. "And the Spectrobe Masters are the ones who command the Spectrobes and lead them to fight the Krawl."

"…I see…" Rex murmured, a small thoughtful frown on his face. "…I… missed quite a lot since I… 'disappeared'… didn't I?"

"Kinda, yeah…"

Rex sighed softly, shutting his eyes and rubbing his temple. He looked… a little sad, strangely enough.

"Rex? You alright?" Rallen asked worriedly.

"…Yeah… it's just… I'm finally home and yet… I missed so much…" Rex paused to let out a small sigh once again. "I just feel like I'm a stranger here now… Like it's my first time in Nanairo…"

Rallen and Jeena shared a look with each other, before Jeena spoke. "Well… no offense, but you _have_ been away for a long time."

"…True. I suppose I only have myself to blame for that, then…" Rex murmured with a light shrug.

"…Hey, Rex?" Rallen started after a moment of thought. "Are you sure you're alright beside that? You've been acting a little… I don't know, off…"

"Besides this major migraine I got… I'm fine, really," Rex said, reaching back to rub the back of his head, flinching slightly as he did. "Ow… dammit, must've hit my head on something solid when I came down…"

Rallen suppressed a frown at his brother's words. There was something else that was odd about Rex, but he was having difficulty placing exactly what it was. It was subtle, not just the odd behavior of his older brother. Rallen remembered his brother to always be full of energy, much like himself, but serious when the need came knocking. Rex was never… sad, or melancholic, but right then, he seemed to be just that.

"If I may ask, what exactly happened to get you _here_, Rex?" Jeena asked after a moment.

Rex blinked slowly, as though the question had come as a surprise to him. After a few moments, Rex shut his eyes and lightly held his head. "…the engines gave out much sooner than I had anticipated… I wasn't close enough to Himuro yet, so I was forced to make a landing here…"

"How did you survive that?" the younger orange-haired NPP Officer asked curiously.

"…how did…?" Rex frowned in thought for a moment, before he hissed and gripped his head in both hands. "Urgh… my head…"

"Are you okay?" Jeena asked as she walked over, placing a hand on his shoulder. As she did, though, a shudder ripped through her arm and down her spinal cord, one that made her pause. She hadn't noticed it earlier, but Rex's body was… cold. Almost freezing, actually.

"I… I'm okay… just… my head starts pounding whenever I try to think about what happened…" Rex murmured, shaking his head briefly. "Whatever hit me on the head when I came down might've scrambled my memory, too…"

"That sucks…" Rallen mumbled.

"You're telling me…" Rex grumbled. "Worst part is, though, I feel like… like I forgot something… something _really_ important…"

Jeena lightly squeezed Rex's shoulder, in a weak attempt to confort him. "I'm sure you'll remember in time. Maybe you just need to lay down…"

"No!" The sudden shout made Jeena back off and caused Rallen to jump. Rex tensed when he realized what he'd done and turned away from them. "No… that's okay… sorry I yelled…"

"Rex, seriously, what's _wrong_ with you?" Rallen asked, getting up and walking to his brother, leaning forward on his knees to look the taller man in the eye (or trying to, at least, since he was looking away). "I know you said you have a migraine, but that was never a reason for you to act so… down."

"…"

"Rex, please… tell me what's wrong… please…"

Rex remained quiet for a moment, before he gave a small, mirthless chuckle. "Heh… it's silly, really…"

"Tell me anyway," Rallen insisted, doing his very best to sound sincere while keeping his eyes trained on his brother.

"…I just… I have this weird feeling… if I close my eyes for longer than a few seconds… I won't be able to get 'em open again…" Rex confessed slowly, and given the subtle shudder of his body, it was a concept that probably scared him. Hell, a feeling like was something that would probably have Rallen scared at least a little.

Rallen and Jeena exchanged a quick look, before Rallen turned back to his brother. "Rex… it's fine… Look, how 'bout we just go back to Kollin now? I mean… you and Lizzy have a lot to catch up on, right?"

At that point, Rex's head shot up so fast that he almost hit Rallen right in the forehead. The expression on his face was one of alarm. "Li… oh _shit!_" Rex nearly shouted out and leaped to his feet rushing toward the elevator.

"Hey wha-Rex! Hold up a second!" Rallen called out, hurrying after Rex with Jeena and Komainu.

They caught up to Rex just as he was hurrying outside, and Rallen managed to snag him by his wrist.

"Rex, what's wrong? Why are you so panicked?"

"I… I remember… I… I lost it…"

"Lost it…? What did you lose?" Jeena asked carefully.

"Liz… Lizzy's present… I lost it somewhere…" Rex mumbled, almost to himself. "If… I go back without it… I…"

"Her pre… oh! Her birthday present, you mean?" Rallen questioned. Liz's birthday had been a few days after Rex's unfortunate disappearance 12 years ago, but it seemed that Rex had bought her a present in advance, so he could give it to her right after their patrol mission had been completed.

And now he understood his brother's 'panic'. If he showed up without Liz's present… she'd probably do more than just clock him.

"Ye… yeah… I know it's late, but…"

"It's fine, Rex," Rallen said with a nod. "We'll help you look for it."

Jeena nodded in agreement when the taller NPP Officer looked over. "The more people help search, the sooner we'll find it, right?"

"…Thank you…" Rex murmured, nodding slowly.

"No prob, bro. Right! Iku ze!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Right... If everything works out, next (pair of) chapter(s) should be the final part, but I'll see how it works out.**


	7. Chapter 3b

_**Chapter 3a: Upon the Darkened Planet**_

* * *

><p>The first time they had traveled to Meido had been, needless to say, nerve wrecking on both their accounts. Neither of the two had been that willing to return there again, though they were well aware they had no real choice in the matter. It was dark, cold, and foreboding, as the sun's rays were unable to reach it properly, turning the place into a barren wasteland where no being had a chance of survival. How the place had oxygen at all, no one was certain, but in a way, it was good it did. But that still didn't make the place any more attractive to visit.<p>

At this point in time, however, Rallen and Jeena barely thought twice about heading there. They had an actual reason to go there now, after all;

To pick Rex up and get him home.

* * *

><p>Rallen was practically already out of the cruiser before it had even properly touched down, but Jeena didn't even mention this to him as she finished what she was doing, and then hurried out after her partner. Though truthfully, she was still trying to get her bearings from how fast they had just flown over from Ziba to Meido. She was used to high speed flying when it came to Rallen, but the speed from only a few moments ago was damn fast, even for a speed devil like Rallen.<p>

She was about to step out of the cruiser, but backpedaled at the last second and went to the incubator and retrieve Komainu. It would be a good idea to get someone out who was equipped for searches in this situation.

When she stepped outside, she saw Rallen standing a few feet ahead of her, scanning the area over before he brought up his hands in a makeshift megaphone.

"REX! IF YOU'RE OKAY, SAY SOMETHING!" he shouted out.

All they got back, however, was Rallen's own echo. The orange-haired NPP sighed and put his hands on his hips. He appeared to be both annoyed and worried, though he appeared to be trying to suppress the latter emotion.

"Damn… this is so like him… he's gonna me us worry for nothing again…"

"Well, let's start looking around the area, then. Scans indicate his ship must've crashed around here, somewhere."

"Yeah… let's go," Rallen agreed with a nod, even as they began to walk off slowly.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long before they discovered a long, deep trench across the ground, leading to a massive pit that Rallen only vaguely remembered from two years ago. It was a place he had avoided during his first trip there in favor of actually finding the leader of the Krawl. As he walked over slowly and looked down, he had to squint in order to see anything down below them, and even then, what he saw was limited; it was just that dark.<p>

"This can't be good…" Rallen murmured.

"This looks like it could belong to Rex's ship…" Jeena murmured, studying the trench a little closer. "It must've tipped over the edge of the pit at some point."

"Yeah… I hope Rex wasn't actually _on _it when it did… I can't see the bottom of this thing…" Rallen grumbled softly.

"Hopefully not… It's possible he might've jumped out before it did… in which case he'd be somewhere around here."

"Nnnnooo… Don't you remember? He said he was going to try and fix it himself so he'd probably have searched around for a way down," Rallen pointed out. "We just have to figure out how he did get down there."

As Rallen and Jeena looked around for a safe way down the pit, though, Komainu turned to the side with a curious sound, before he barked and bounded off.

"Komainu!" Jeena cried out when she realized that the child Spectrobe had run off – again – making Rallen look up.

"Oh not again! Komainu! Get back here!" Rallen cried out as the pair hurried after the tiny Spectrobe.

Komainu, however, didn't listen, and instead ran on ahead of them, before he hopped over a rock and into a cave that had been hidden partially in shadows.

"Huh? Is that a…?" Rallen queried, moving over and peeking into the cave.

"Looks like some sort of cave… do you think?"

"One way to find out, right?"

After exchanging a nod with each other, the pair climbed over the rock Komainu had cleared earlier, stepping into the cave slowly, though they were forced to walk sideways because of the narrow entrance. As they went, Jeena produced a small orb of light that served as a flashlight, allowing them to see where they were going.

"Kinda cramped… how did he get through here?" Rallen grumbled.

Just as Jeena got ready to answer, Komainu gave a bark from a little further down the cave, making the two Officers jump at the sound (since it echoed around and sounded a lot louder than it should), before they hurried along.

As they closed in on the source of the bark, though…

"Hey whoa! What the…?" yowled out a man's voice, though it was cut off before the curse could be completed. "…eh? What are you supposed to be, then?" the same voice questioned, as Komainu gave a sound that was almost like a purr, but not quite there, which meant he was getting the desired attention.

Rallen's eyes widened in surprise when the voice registered in his mind and he immediately increased his pace, almost leaving Jeena behind.

"R-Rallen!" she called out, though her voice was barely audible as Rallen came out in a wider portion of the cave and shouted out: "REX!"

This caused the man who had been crouching to pet Komainu to yowl in surprise as he leaped to his feet, whirling around toward Rallen. Deep orange hair hung down his back all the way down to his waist, the long bangs obscuring his right eye entirely, leaving only the left eye, which was a bright orange-golden in color, visible.

"What in…? …! N-no way… R… Rallen, is that…?"

Rallen stood for a moment, panting for breath slightly from rushing in like that, but slowly, his mouth quirked up in a grin as tears threatened to roll down from his eyes. And, just as Jeena made it into the cave, Rallen shouted out: "REX!" and was halfway the cave floor and flying into the other man's (surprised) arms.

"Oof! Holy… damn, you _really_ shot up through the roof, didn't you?" Rex laughed out as he brought up his own arms to return the hug. "Do I even _want_ to know how you got here?"

"We… we came this way the moment we got your message, you… you dolt!" Rallen chuckled out, still refusing to let go of the taller man.

"Since when does Nanairo… 'Dolt'?" Rex repeated with a laugh. "Just how long have you been hanging out with Lizzy while I was gone, anywho?"

"N-nine years, almost," Rallen managed to get out, still struggling against his tears, even if it was impossible to keep the grin off his face.

Jeena merely watched the two men with a small, relieved smile of her own, taking a moment to look the taller man over. And she immediately realized there was no way for her to mistake Rex for anything other than Rallen's brother.

He was roughly a foot and a half taller than Rallen, but his hair was the same deep orange, though it was longer than Jeena recalled seeing on Rallen's photo's, as it hung down his back, reaching just past his waist, and the bangs obscured his right eye, which was identical in coloring to Rallen's, only it was slightly more slanted. The clothes he wore were definitely not from anywhere in Nanairo, though they looked slightly similar in design to what she remembered from the Kaio system. Simple black trousers tucked into a pair of fur-lined boots, a deep blue, long-sleeved tunic held together with a belt, which also held a supply bag of some kind on the left, a pair of heavy gloves protecting his hands, and a travel cloak slung around his shoulders.

After giving the two brothers a few moments more to themselves, Jeena finally cleared her throat, though she couldn't help but smile.

Rallen blinked at the sound, before he seemed to remember that Jeena was also still there and (reluctantly, by the looks of it) pulled away from his brother. "Oh, Rex, this is Jeena. She's my partner in NPP."

At the introduction, Rex looked over to Jeena curiously, his head cocked slightly, before he clucked his tongue. "NPP, eh?" he chuckled out to his brother. "So ya finally made it, huh?"

"I told you I would!" Rallen exclaimed with a proud grin, hands on his hips, which earned him a quick hair ruffle. "Hey!"

"Hahah, so you did, Rall." With that said, Rex stepped up to Jeena and held out his hand. "Sure you know already, but I'm Rex. Nice to meet you."

Jeena smiled and accepted the man's firm handshake. "Nice to meet you too, sir. Rallen's told me many good things about you."

"He did, eh?" Rex murmured, briefly looking back to Rallen, who chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head, before turning to Jeena with a small frown. "One thing though; _please_ don't call me 'sir', will you? I feel old enough already…"

"Oh um… sorry…" Jeena murmured – which got _her_ a hair ruffle. "H-hey!"

"Don't take everything so seriously, Jeen," Rex laughed out. "You act like I'm gonna bite your head off any moment."

"Oh uh… S-sorry, I just…" Jeena started, only for Rex to put his hands on her cheeks and use his thumbs to push up the corners of her mouth. "Eep!"

"Loo-sen. Up. Already!" Rex said with a small frown, before he backed off with a small chuckle. "Seriously. Don't be so uptight. Really, I don't bite. The most I'll do is make your hair messy," he chuckled out.

Rallen had to resist the urge to laugh at the exchange between his partner and Rex. He'd known right away that Rex would be able to get along with Jeena just fine, and Jeena looked like she was having at least _some_ fun with the older orange-haired NPP Officer. Not that that was overly difficult; it was harder to _not_ like Rex, given how he was more than half the time.

Just as Rallen thought that, Komainu gave a small whine, jumping up against Rex's ankles and making the other man look over with a curious hum.

"Yeah, I've met you already," Rex chuckled as he crouched down to pet the Spectrobe, who closed his eyes happily at the attention. "So who or what is this, then?"

"Heh. He's Komainu. Little attention glutton," Rallen said as he walked over, crouching down to pick the little Spectrobe up. "As for 'what' he is… he's a child Spectrobe."

"Hm? 'Spectrobe'? That's a new one… That a new race that was discovered while I was out of the system?"

"Maybe it's better if we explain that to you back at the cruiser," Jeena offered.

"…Yeah, good idea," Rex agreed with a nod.

* * *

><p>A little later, the small group was back in the patrol cruiser, Rex sitting on one of the sleeping pods while Rallen and Jeena took the chairs in the room. While they didn't have the time or the leisure to explain everything about the Spectrobes, the Krawl, or even Krux, Rallen and Jeena gave Rex a quick, short overview of the basis.<p>

"Right, so… let me see if I got this right;" Rex said, starting to tick off the facts on his fingers, "Spectrobes are beings of light, and the Krawl are being of darkness. The Krawl are after the destruction of the systems for whatever reason, and the Spectrobes fight the Krawl to stop them. And the Spectrobe Masters are those who command the Spectrobes into battle. Right?"

"That's the gist of it, yeah," Rallen quipped casually as he nodded.

"Don't forget that Spectrobes will fossilize once the Krawl threat has passed," Jeena reminded them.

"I was getting to that, but I was running out of fingers…" Rex mumbled. "Anywho! So why did those Krawl come to Nanairo _twice_? Didn't learn their lesson the first time?"

"Um… that's kind of a long story…" Rallen mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sure you wanna hear that now?"

"Hmm… nah. May as well wait with that, then," Rex said finally, waving the matter off, lightly scratching Komainu behind his ears from where the small Spectrobe rested beside him. "Kinda hard to imagine this little guy being able to take down anything though… How does that work? He charm those Krawl into killing themselves?"

Both Rallen and Jeena had to laugh at Rex's question/joke, but Jeena shook her head. "Child Spectrobes don't actually fight the Krawl. Only the adults do."

"Oh? And how long does it take for a child Spectrobe to become an adult?" Rex asked, sounding genuinely curious even as he rolled Komainu onto his back to scratch his tummy.

"Well, that seems to vary per star system, really," Rallen said slowly. "In Nanairo, it could take up to a few days, in Kaio, if you have the right mineral, it takes a few seconds."

"That fast? Wow… then again, I suppose the threat of total annihilation would make anyone grow up quick."

"Yeah, I guess so…" Rallen murmured in thought.

"If I may ask, what exactly happened to get you _here_, Rex?" Jeena asked after a moment.

"Way to change the subject, Jeen," Rallen mumbled to his partner.

"She asks a good question, though," Rex pointed out while scratching Komainu under his chin. "Put simply, the engines died much sooner than I was expecting them to. I'd been hoping to at least make it all the way to Himuro, but either the fuel I put in it killed the damn thing, or I just did a lousy patch-up job. Either way, was my own fault, I suppose…"

"Wasn't there a way to extend their functions a little bit?" the pink-haired girl asked.

"Think I didn't try that? I did what I could and I failed. End of that story."

"So that huge trench out there…?" Rallen started, and Rex nodded before he had the chance to finish the question.

"Eeyup. That's where the damn thing skidded along the ground when I came down… I managed to jump out before it tipped over the edge, though I did bang my head upon coming down," Rex grumbled rubbing his head a little. "I'm gonna have a lump here pretty soon, I'll bet…"

Rallen allowed a small smile, as he watched his brother going back to petting Komainu. His brother had never seemed like the person who'd want to own a pet, but that might have been partially because of his dream to be an NPP Officer, which he had been pursuing since his own childhood. It was a little difficult to find pets that would be suited for NPP work, and even then, they'd have to be properly trained before HQ would allow them in. Watching Rex playing with the small Spectrobe like that, though, made it obvious that Rex probably would not pass up the offer if he had the chance.

"Heh… funny…" Rex mumbled suddenly.

"Huh? What's funny?" Rallen asked.

"I can't stand big around normal house pets, but this little guy is no problem to me, it seems."

At those words, Rallen blinked in surprise, but it was Jeena who asked the question they both wanted answers to; "What's wrong with house pets?"

"Oh don't get me wrong. There's nothing 'wrong' with them…" Rex said with a shrug. "I just can't being around them… since I'm allergic to both cats and dogs."

"Allergic?" Rallen got out. "Since when?"

"Since forever," Rex said simply. "Why do you think we never had any pets at home? Last time we had a dog—which was before you were born, by the way—I would always break out in a rash whenever he got close and I'd get teary eyes. I don't sneeze, thankfully, but rash is equally annoying, if not more so…"

"Wow… no I… I never stopped to think about it… I just thought… never mind."

Rex merely smiled, as he rolled Komainu over a few times, who let out a happy mewl at the attention he was getting. "It's fine. Guess mom never told you after I disappeared, huh?"

At those words, Rallen tensed up in alarm, suddenly realizing that there was something else that Rex probably hadn't heard of yet since his return to Nanairo. Something that was most definitely very important.

"Um… Rex?"

"Hm? What's up, Rall?"

"Well uh… just… there's… I mean… there's something you should… really know about before we go back home…"

"…?"

"It um… it's-it's about mom… you see, she uh…"

But before Rallen could break the news to his brother, Komainu yelped loudly as he rolled over and off the pod and fell down to the ground with a small thud, drawing the humans' attention to him immediately. Rex allowed a small laugh as he reached down to pick the Spectrobe up again.

"Careful where you roll there, Komainu," he chuckled out. "You might hurt yourself."

The small Spectrobe only barked, wriggling a little in Rex's grip before he was put down again, this time in Rex's lap, where he proceeded to cuddle again the man's stomach happily.

"So… what's this about mom?" Rex asked calmly.

"…N… no… never mind… it can wait…" Rallen murmured finally, looking down at his feet. He wanted to tell him so much, but he just couldn't bring himself to. He knew very well that he'd have to tell him _before_ they came back to Kollin… but he just didn't know how to say it.

Rex, of course, seemed to realize something was up, but he chose not to say anything about it. Not at the moment, at least. Rather than say something, Rex focused instead on keeping Komainu content where he lay.

Jeena giggled as she saw that Komainu didn't seem to mind Rex in the very least, which was a rarity, since the small Spectrobe preferred to stick around by herself and Rallen above other people. But that might also have something to do with Rex being so similar to Rallen.

"Hey, you know, if you're interested, we could go looking for a fossil somewhere and you could raise one of your own," Jeena offered after a moment of thought.

Rex blinked in surprise at that, before he chuckled. "Hey, you sure that'd be a good idea? I thought they were reserved for Spectrobe Masters."

"Well, Komainu doesn't seem to mind," Rallen pointed out with a smile, as Rex stroked the Spectrobe over his back. "I don't think it's much of a problem if you raise it as a child from the start. You can even consider it a 'welcome home' gift from me and Jeena, if you want."

"Really, eh? Heh… then I guess I'll—wait…" Rex paused mid-stroke, his smile fading and a thoughtful frown on his face. Komainu gave a confused sound up at Rex at the sudden pause, and barked a bit unhappily when Rex set him back on the pod and stood up, beginning to search through his bag quickly. "Please don't tell me…" he mumbled to himself, before he searched through his pockets.

"Rex? Is something wrong?" Rallen asked cautiously.

"…_Sheee-iiit!_" Rex nearly shouted, before he dashed for the elevator.

"Hey wha-Rex! Hold up a second!" Rallen called out, hurrying after Rex with Jeena and Komainu.

They caught up to Rex just as he was hurrying outside, and Rallen managed to snag him by his wrist.

"Wait just a second, will you? What's got you so panicky?"

"I got every right to be 'panicky'! I forgot something in the damn ship and I can't leave this place without it!"

Jeena blinked and cocked her head. "Huh? What's so important that you can't leave without it?"

"Let me just put it this way; I leave without it, and I'm dead once we're back on Kollin," Rex grumbled, rubbing his temple. "Coz Lizzy's prolly gonna skin me alive."

Rallen frowned a little in thought, before it dawned on him what Rex had to be talking about. "Oh? So you actually—"

"You say one more word and you'll regret it, Rallen," Rex snarled out under his breath, and Rallen immediately snapped his jaw shut, making Jeena gawk in slight surprise at the fact that Rex stopped Rallen's quip so easily.

"Okay, okay, I'll shut up…"

Jeena frowned in thought, before she turned to Rex. "Well, if it's that important, we'll help you look for it."

"Um… That's not really necessary, Jeen… I know where I left it, I just need to—"

"Ah, c'mon! Ya gotta get into the pit to pick it up, right? You could use all the help you can get to get down there, don't you?" Rallen quipped, and Rex actually frowned.

"…I'm gonna get you for that…" he threatened softly, before he sighed. "Well, _fine_. Let's just move…"

"Of course. Let's go."

"Yep. Iku ze!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, that's that. And yep, Rex is allergic to any animal with hairs longer than two inch****es. Spectrobes, however, do not fall under his 'allergy list'.**


	8. Chapter 4a

_**Chapter 4a: Final Present**_

* * *

><p>Soon enough, they were back in the cave where they had first found Rex. The reason for this was simple; Rex had already found a way down to the lower levels, but he'd been in the middle of digging though the wall when Rallen and Jeena had appeared. And with the tools that the two NPP Officers had on them, it was easy enough to break through.<p>

"There we go!" Rallen laughed as the last bits of the wall gave away. "Huh… looks like we should be able to climb down easily enough…"

"Looks like it…" Rex agreed with a small nod.

"Well, let's go then," Jeena said calmly.

With that said, the small group slowly began their descent, with Jeena calling out her little orb of light again as they went. It wasn't overly difficult to get down, for which they were all very glad, but it was still very dark, even with the light source they had, which wasn't all that much in the first place.

"Hey, Jeena, don't we have anything else to light the way?" Rallen called out to his partner.

"No, Rallen, this is all we have, so stop asking!"

"Okay, okay… sheesh…"

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of climbing and bumping their head and toes into ledges and hidden rocks, they finally touched down on the bottom of the shaft. Which, by the way, was even darker, thus making it almost impossible to see anything.<p>

"Okay… here we are… Rex, do you know where you may have left Liz's present?" Rallen asked as he turned to face his brother.

Said man, however, didn't seem to have heard him, as he appeared to be too focused on the surrounding area. Strangely enough, he also seemed to be shivering, and while Rallen would agree that it wasn't too warm there, he was sure it wasn't _that_ cold. Of course, he knew that if he asked, he probably wouldn't get an answer to the question from the other man.

"Rex?" Rallen called out in an attempt to catch his brother's attention, which seemed to work as he jumped and turned to face Rallen.

"Um… sorry, what did you say?" he asked quietly, which was another factor that was odd about Rex. The only times when Rex would speak as quietly as he did now, was when he was trying to not wake Rallen, or if he wanted to say something to Rallen without anyone else hearing about it (something he did whenever Rallen snuck into NPPHQ).

"I asked you if you have ideas on where you dropped Liz's present," Rallen repeated instead of commenting on it. He'd ask about it later.

Rex was silent for a moment, before he put a hand to his temple. "…No… I… may have actually… left it on the ship, but… I… I don't remember…"

"It's okay, Rex, don't strain yourself," Jeena said, softly placing a hand on his shoulder. Again, she repressed the urge to shudder. "We'll just look everywhere for now. Okay?"

"…yeah, okay…"

With that said, the small group began to move ahead, carefully maneuvering around chunks of debris and making their way further into the darkness. Komainu was running ahead of them, sniffing along the ground curiously as they went. The little Spectrobe had obviously managed to pick up that they were looking for something very important, so he was doing whatever he could without Rallen or Jeena needing to tell him.

"…Hey, Jeena?" Rallen whispered suddenly as Rex moved ahead a little further, slowing his pace to increase the distance a little further. "I know you don't know Rex as well as I do, but… don't you think something's… really off about him?"

"Yeah…" Jeena agreed softly, looking ahead toward the other man. "I don't know him that well… but his behavior is indeed a little strange… Not to mention he…"

"Huh? What's wrong?" Rallen asked softly when Jeena stopped talking.

"Didn't you notice? He's almost freezing," Jeena softly hissed out, reminding herself to keep quiet so Rex wouldn't hear. "I know it's cold here, but it shouldn't be cold enough for him to be _that_ cold…"

At that, Rallen frowned, looking over to his brother as he moved on ahead. He _had_ noticed, actually, but he hadn't actually thought much about it. He had just blamed that on the chill of the planet, but was that really all there was to it?

He was starting to have his doubts…

"Rallen, Jeena…" Rex called out suddenly, making the duo blink, before hurrying over.

When Rallen and Jeena joined Rex and Komainu, they realized immediately what was wrong. Ahead of them was yet another pit, and it was big enough to prevent them from going anywhere, since it was too long to jump over and too wide to shimmy past (which wouldn't have worked anyway without ledges).

"Another pit? Esh… someone really doesn't want us progressing any further…" Rallen grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "How do we get over this?"

"I'm not sure…" Jeena murmured, even as Rex took a few steps back and looked up. "We need to make a bridge, but we'll need to-"

"…If we can pull that stalactite down from the ceiling… that could serve as a bridge…" Rex said, pointing up to the ceiling, making the pair look up.

True enough, there was a large stalactite hanging right above the pit that would probably fit perfectly if they could break it off properly. However, it was well out of their range, and it was too big and solid for a child Spectrobe to break loose.

"With all due respect, Rex," Jeena said after a moment, as Rex put his right indexfinger to his mouth and bit down on the material of his glove, pulling it off with just his teeth, "it's a nice idea, but we can't break it loose from the ceiling… it's better if we just…"

"…I got this…" Rex said as he removed his glove and reached for his arm to roll up the sleeve.

"Huh?"

Rallen and Jeena exchanged a look as Rex did so, quietly questioning what the older man had just said, before turning to Rex as he placed his glove in his pocket for a moment.

"You got some kind of gadget to pull that thing down, Rex?" Rallen asked curiously with his head slightly cocked to the side.

"…I… suppose you can call it that…" the older man said slowly, finally bringing his right arm up – and Jeena gasped in shock, while Rallen stared at what they saw.

Rex's right arm to just above the elbow appeared to be made of some sort of dull golden material, though it looked more like it was a collection of particles of varying sizes, some the size of pebbles and others almost the size of a baseball, with pale blue energy-like veins keeping them all clunked together. The particles were positioned in such a way that, if the limb was fully clothed, you wouldn't be able to see it wasn't a natural arm, and they even imitated the nails on his fingers.

"Whoa! What _is_ that?" Rallen asked in awe.

"…Just… something I found once… after… an accident…" Rex said solemnly, before he raised his arm and splayed out the palm of his right hand to level it with the stalactite. "I'll… I'll explain the rest later…"

As he finished saying that, the energy between the particles pulsed suddenly – and the segments broke apart and began to hover in midair around the stump that remained of Rex's arm, making it obvious that the segments actually served as his arm, rather than simply cover it. The energy that had kept them connected now seemed to be keeping them afloat, making the golden material shine a light silvery-blue, almost.

Both Jeena and Rallen watched curiously as the segments hovered for a moment while Rex took a deep breath, as though in concentration, before the segments rushed up toward the stalactite, coalescing and forming a powerful looking claw, which grabbed hold of the bottom of the spire. Rex frowned in thought, as the claw seemed to be tugging on the piece of rock.

"…holding on better than I thought…" he murmured. "…won't help, though…"

The claw flexed its fingers around the spire briefly, as though adjusting its hold, before it yanked sharply, making the spire crack ominously.

"…get down…"

With that said and one more, resounding crash that echoed through the cave and made Jeena and Rallen jump back in surprise, the spire broke loose from the ceiling and the claw released the stalactite, moving out of the way quickly and catching it by the top by drilling its fingers into the surface. And, despite that it wasn't actually attached to Rex's arm right then, the man actually groaned, as though he were struggling to keep the spire in midair.

"…damn… it's… heavier than I thought…"

The claw seemed to shake subtly, but it still lowered the spire into the hole, letting it go only when Rex seemed to be positive it wouldn't fall all the way down. Once he seemed completely sure of this, the claw pried itself loose from the spire and burst apart again, flying back over to Rex and reforming into his arm. The orange-haired NPP Officer took a moment to flex his fingers, before adjusting his sleeve and pulling his glove on again.

"Wow! That was so awesome! What is that thing?" Rallen called out in excitement.

Rex allowed a small smile as he placed one hand along his arm. "What it is? Heh… honestly… I'm not sure… All I know is that it works in the same way my normal arm would… only it has a few… 'extras', I suppose you could say…"

"I see… was it part of the technology of the planet you ended up on?" Jeena asked, even as they began to climb over the stalactite to cross what was left of the pit.

"…not… exactly…" the other man murmured. "It was more like… a 'lost technology'… Something that had been left over from the civilization living there before the current race."

"Lost technology, huh?" Rallen murmured thoughtfully.

"Do you think it's possible to replicate it, Rex?" Jeena asked, almost as curious as her partner.

"I don't think so… plus it's… a bit sensitive for me… since it serves as my arm…" Rex said softly. "I'm not sure if it… heals if I injure myself… but I'd rather not test that…"

"Understandable…" Rallen mumbled, as he seemed to think for a few moments.

But before he could say anything, Komainu barked loudly and dashed ahead. Wordlessly, the three humans hurried after the little Spectrobe, down a winding pathway, until they finally arrived inside a wide cave like area.

The walls and part of the ground were littered with razor sharp spires that were sticking out at all angles, and up ahead of them, in the very back of the room, was what remained of what must've been Rex's ship at one point. It was large, a little bigger than the standard patrol cruiser, but it almost looked like the relic spaceship Rallen and Jeena dug up on Nessa. When it had been in one piece, it must've looked quite impressive. Now, it had been reduced to a large metal pincushion.

"Ulp… do I even _want_ to know how you survived that?" Rallen asked slowly.

Rex blinked, cocking his head sideways as he looked to the ship, as though he was seeing something completely different from what Rallen and Jeena were seeing. His eyes were unfocused and glassy, but his expression was that of someone trying to think very hard on something.

"…Rex? Are you alright?" Jeena asked slowly.

"…"

"…Bro?" Rallen called out, starting to get a little worried.

Rex slowly stepped forward a bit more, watching the ship silently and not seeming to hear the two NPP's at all.

"Rex…?"

The other man didn't respond to the call, remaining where he was, staring up at the ship he had used to get back to Nanairo. He seemed to be lost in thought, as though there was something there only he could see. After a moment longer, however, he hissed out in pain and grasped his head in both hands, fingers almost digging into his scalp.

"Nrgh… w-why does my head… urgh… why? What… what _happened_ here?" Rex choked out, dropping down to his knees.

"Rex?" Rallen cried out, hurrying over to his brother's side, Jeena not far behind. As they crouched down beside him, Rallen placed a hand on Rex's shoulder, feeling the cold of his body through the cloak and successfully suppressing a shudder as he asked: "Rex, what's wrong?"

"S… something… happened… something bad… I _know_ it happened… but… but I don't remember… what _it_ was…" Rex wheezed out, his eyes clenched shut tightly as he attempted to remember. "What was it? What the _hell_ happened here?"

"Rex, calm down…" Jeena murmured softly, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other on his back. She was unable to fully suppress her shudder, though. "C'mon… deep breath… just… calm down. It won't come to you if you're panicked like that."

Rex took a few deep breaths, before he slowly opened his eyes again. "…I know it's important… why… can't I remember?"

"…Well, can you remember how you came here, Rex?" Rallen asked after a moment. "Try to remember that and maybe… maybe you'll remember what happened after."

The taller man didn't reply right away, but he did furrow his brows in thought.

"How… did I…" he murmured softly, beginning to think back.

* * *

><p>"<em>Oyoooyyyaaawn… eshkivilles… how far away is Himuro from Section Y, anyway?" Rex grumbled in annoyance, rubbing at his eyes to remove the tears that his last yawn had brought on. "I swear… either Nanairo expanded since I was gone, or this pile of dust is slower than I originally thought…"<em>

_Taking a brief moment off the controls to stretch, Rex grumbled a little incoherently under his breath as he stretched out, cracking his fingers as he did. Taking hold of the wheel again, Rex rubbed the back of his head and clucked his tongue._

"_This thing doesn't have autopilot anywhere does it? …Why am I even asking? I checked that before I left!" Rex took a moment to rub the bridge of his nose, before murmuring: "And I gotta stop talking to myself… talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity…"_

_Suppressing another yawn, Rex gazed out upon the open space ahead of him, allowing a small smile. "But… at least I made it back… Wonder if Rallen's made it into NPP while I was gone. I'm sure Lizzy must've been training him properly… well, I hope she did, at least. She said she would, but… …Ah, whatever. I should worry more 'bout my own hide… she's prolly gonna kill me if I dare show up empty-handed… hell, she might do it anyway…"_

_Looking to the side, he allowed a fond smile as his gaze rested on the small object he had left there. Bringing up his right hand, he allowed a few segments of his hand to float over and pick it up, placing it in the palm of his hand before they returned to their original locations in his arm again. "Hope she keeps me alive for long enough to ask her, though… I might be too late already… but hell. Better late than never… I don't think I'd ever be able to forgive myself if I ended up leaving again without asking…"_

_Quietly, he brought it to his chest and sighed softly. "…I wonder what she'll say… Would she even listen? …hope so…"_

_Suddenly, the alarm blared and Rex jumped, the sudden motion causing the object in his hand to fly from his hand to scatter across the floor. "Oh you gotta be! Do I just have the universe's worst possible luck or what?" Rex snarled out as he fiddled with some of the controls, even as a few segments of his arm rushed out from under his glove to quickly grab the fallen object. "Why now of all times? I'm nowhere near Himuro yet! Shit!" Rex roared, slamming his fist on the metal plating. "What to do? This thing doesn't look like it's got the energy to reach Himuro… and the last thing I need is to float around endlessly… Ugh… my luck really su—WHOA!"_

_The last exclamation was because the ship suddenly tilted sideways, almost throwing Rex out of his seat. Somehow, he managed to stay as upright as he could, his right arm coiled around the armrest and his left hand holding onto the wheel._

"_What the hell? …Oh shit, don't tell me…! Crap! Meido's gravity is pulling this damn thing in! Grrr! Said it once, I'll say it again; my luck __sucks__!"_

_With the engines already dying on him, it was really only a matter of time before the ship could no longer resist Meido's gravitational pull and it plummeted down. Of course, Rex wasn't going to go down __that__ easy, and somehow he managed to swerve the ship around for it to do a bellyflop onto Meido's surface, where it skidded along before coming to a stop on the edge of the pit. The sudden halt snapped Rex forward and then backward, smashing his skull into the back of his seat with a resounding crack._

_The hit caused Rex to see stars for a few moments, and he hissed in pain, keeping a hand to his head as his vision started to blur. "…ow… da-dammit… ow…"_

_Reaching out, Rex attempted to find the clasp of his seatbelt, but his fingers couldn't find it right off the bat, leaving him fumbling a little before he was able to get loose._

"_Sh… shit… this is… this is bad… feel like I'm gonna throw up…" he choked out, clambering out of the seat and almost hitting the floor. "What the hell… I should… be used to hits like that… am I that… outta shape?"_

_Just as he was about to walk, though, the ship tipped under its own weight and the orange-haired man lost his balance and fell backwards to smash into the control panel with a grunt of pain. Then, just as suddenly, there was a moment of weightlessness… and then… darkness…_

* * *

><p>"…!" Rex's eyes snapped wide open in alarm, the haze leaving his mind and he almost seemed to stop breathing. The weariness from before was gone, leaving him with a crystal clear understanding of what had happened… and he really wished it hadn't come back to him. "No… no way…!"<p>

"Rex? Are you okay? Did you—"

However, Rex shot up from the ground before Rallen could finish the question and immediately started for the ship without a word.

"H-hey, Rex! Hold up a second!" Rallen called out as he and Jeena hurried to catch up.

But just as they were about to catch up, Rex turned on them and stopped them with a hand on their shoulders. "No! Stay here! I… I have to do this myself."

"Eh? But… Bro, that doesn't make—"

"Rallen, stay put."

"But—"

"STAY PUT!"

Rallen immediately snapped his jaw shut, memories of his brother's temper from his childhood resurfacing. "…a-alright…"

Jeena looked to Rallen in slight surprise when her partner just agreed to stay put, but one more look at Rex's face and she had to resist the urge to gulp. Rex looked… quite scary when he was angry, and she hoped he'd never be so angry with them. Well, truthfully, this wasn't really 'angry', it was more like he was just giving them a glare that was meant to keep them in place.

Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't angry to begin with.

Once Rex was sure they wouldn't follow him, he spun around and almost ran to the ship. Neither Rallen or Jeena moved from their spots and merely watched as Rex opened the entrance and went inside. Both of them remained silent, waiting in their spot for Rex to come back out with the present he had forgotten, but he was taking an awfully long time with it.

"…Rex? Are you okay in there?" Rallen called out, making sure not to move from his spot. He remembered well enough that Rex was not someone you wanted to piss off, since he wasn't afraid to throw any punches. Thankfully, he'd never actually punched Rallen or their mother, but that didn't mean Rallen wasn't afraid of his brother's temper.

After a moment more of waiting, though, he realized that no response came at all.

"Rex?"

Silence.

Rallen and Jeena glanced to each other, both of them frowning in worry. Looking over to the ship again, this time it was Jeena who called out.

"Rex, is something wrong?

No response came.

This caused both Rallen and Jeena to look at each other in worry once again, before Rallen called out: "Rex! We're coming over there!"

When there was no response again, the pair exchanged a nod and began walking forward, with Komainu hurrying after them. As they came within range of the ship, however, Rex finally came out again, but his face was tilted down and he refused to look to the pair. His hand was placed upon the side of the entrance, and he just stood there for a few long moments, as though thinking… and then he dropped down to his knees.

"Rex?" Rallen choked out in surprise, moving over to his brother and kneeling down in front of him. "What's wrong? Did you find the present?"

"…"

"Rex, c'mon… talk to me, bro…"

"…"

Rallen looked over worriedly to Jeena, who seemed just as confused and worried as Rallen, before turning back to Rex. "Rex… if you got what you need, let's go home."

"…I can't…"

"…what?"

"…I can't go home…"

Rallen and Jeena exchanged a confused look, before Jeena walked over to crouch in front of Rex as well.

"Rex, of course you can go home. We just need—"

"No… I can't go home…" Rex whispered, slowly shaking his head. "…I… I don't belong there… I don't belong… anywhere anymore…"

"Rex, what are you talking about? You're not making any sense!" Rallen almost shouted, grabbing hold of his brother's shoulders – and he froze when his hands moved _through_ the other man, hearing Jeena's shocked gasp. "Wh… what…?"

"…I can't go home…" Rex whispered. "…because… because… I'm dead…"

Silence.

Neither Rallen or Jeena have the words they need to say what's on their minds, and whenever they almost found them, they fluttered out of their reach. Even Rallen, who could usually find words for any situation, was having extreme difficulty with handling the situation he was suddenly thrust in. Slowly, he reached out again, trying once more to take hold of his brother's shoulder, but, again, his hand fell through… like he was trying to touch air.

Like there was… nothing in front of him…

"…no…" Rallen choked out finally. He shook his head, unable to believe what he had just heard. "No no no… Re… Rex… you… n-no…"

Jeena stared for a moment longer, before she, carefully, stepped around her partner and walked into the ship. Komainu was quick to follow after her into the ship's depths, which was much darker than she would've liked. Still, she forced herself to move forward and took slow, careful steps. And then her foot shot forward and she gave a cry as her body dropped backwards, making her hit the ground with a heavy thud.

That seemed to snap Rallen out of his stupor (for the moment) as he looked up in surprise, before he called out: "Jeena? Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine… I just slipped on… some… thing…?"

Slowly, she brought up her hand, which had landed on a part of the pool of liquid she had actually slipped on. The palm was stained with a thick, deep red liquid that gradually rolled down the inside of her wrist. It was a liquid she was far too familiar with…

It was blood…

Her body shook slightly in trepidation to what she'd find, but she summoned her orb of light anyway. However, she instinctively shut her eyes against the light, and it took her a few moments for her to be able to open them again.

She was very impressed with herself that she didn't scream when she did.

The ship's control panel had been pierced through by several large spires and had thus been rendered useless. But the thing that had almost made her scream was what had been speared on one of the spires.

"Oh my god…" she breathed out in slight horror, crawling away from the body that she _knew_ had to be Rex's… but Rex was sitting in the doorway with Rallen, she knew.

The body she was staring at was speared right through the chest, and the tip of the spire that stuck out was dyed red, most of the right arm was missing, and on the ground just below it lay the remains of a pile of dull copper rocks, some of them reduced to mere dust. Long, reddish-orange hair hung across the figure's face to obscure the face in shadow, but she could see a trail of blood seeping from the corner of the person's mouth. The left glove had been removed, revealing a familiar handheld messenger that had been secured to what appeared to be a custom made gauntlet. It had been flipped open, and the letters "E", "I", "O", "D" and "M" were covered in blood, as were the buttons for "new" and "send".

"No way… how… how is…?" Jeena choked out, moving back more – and she almost jumped when her fingers brushed up against something.

When she looked, she could only stare at the small, dark box with a small golden border betraying where it was to be opened. It was a type of box that Jeena had often seen many times before, but never this close.

Carefully, she reached out and picked it up. Somehow, it had avoided the puddle of blood and appeared almost pristine, with the exception of a few minor dust particles. Ever so slowly, she opened the small case and her expression fell into a depressed frown.

Komainu cocked his head a little at the body, not seeming to understand what was going on, before looking over to Jeena as she stood and walked back to the entrance almost listlessly. The small Spectrobe was quick to follow, even if he didn't understand what was happening.

As Jeena stopped just short of the doorway, she caught her partner's eye. He didn't say anything, but his eyes were almost pleading, begging her not to say what he most likely already knew to be true. She tried to speak, but the words refused to come, so she merely looked away, biting her lip to keep her tears at bay.

"…no…" Rallen's voice was barely a whisper, and Jeena was genuinely impressed that he wasn't crying yet. Not that she wasn't expecting him not to… it was merely taking him longer than she thought.

However…

"…you… YOU BASTARD!" Rallen suddenly screamed, rearing back and swinging out as if to punch Rex – but the hit flew right through him and struck the doorway instead. The NPP Officer howled in pain as he tended to his fist, cursing furiously, angrier than Jeena had ever seen him since being partnered with the Spectrobe Master.

"R-Rallen! Calm down!" Jeena got out in a feeble attempt to calm her partner down, but Rallen wasn't having it.

"Twelve years… twelve _goddamn_ years you kept us waiting and wishing that you were coming home… that you were coming back to us! And now… now you finally get back… and you damn well get yourself killed! Is this your idea of a friggin' _joke?_"

"You think this is the kinda thing I'd joke about?" Rex screamed back before Jeena could say anything, and the man sounded just as furious as Rallen did. "Heck, if I'd known right of the bat things would end up like this I would've _never_ come back!"

"Yeah, well maybe you should've just gotten yourself killed from the start! That would've saved us all a ton of misery right now!"

"Oh yeah, but a ton of misery is still a ton of misery ain't it? Even if I'd died _then_ it would NOT have made things any easier, you damn brat!"

"Who're you calling a brat, you bastard?"

"You need me to spell it out to you or something? You're the friggin' brat here, _brat!_"

"You call me that again and I'll rip your corpse apart inside out!"

"You do that and I'll see to it that you'll have your own 'unfortunate accident' to worry about!"

Jeena tried several times to jump in, but the insults just kept flying back and forth. She had never seen Rallen so furious before, and quite honestly, it was a little scary, but at the same time, she couldn't believe how he was actually insulting his own brother like that. Of course, the fact that Rex was even screaming back at Rallen added to her own frustration. And she was about to shout at them to shut up and act like adults for once… when she saw them;

Tears.

The longer the insults continued, the more crystalline tears began to gather at both men's eyes, and then trickled down their cheeks like rivers. Rallen's tears came down upon his thighs, the black material of his jumpsuit hiding the evidence of his sorrow perfectly, while Rex's tears seemed to evaporate halfway down their fall. Their expressions barely shifted as they yelled at each other and she wasn't sure what to think of that, but after a moment longer, she decided to just stay back for a while.

It wasn't like Rallen could actually kill his brother after all…

"And you wanna know something else? _I HATE YOU!_" Rallen screamed out suddenly, and that definitely startled Jeena.

She knew it wasn't true, and that Rallen had probably only said it because he was angry, but those were still powerful words to shout at anyone. Especially at someone whom you actually loved very much.

But before she could say anything about it…

"You do, huh? Well _good!_ Coz I friggin' hate you too!"

And with that, they fell silent, panting for breath, glaring each other down with their tears still streaming down their cheeks. Jeena wanted to say something, but she didn't know what she could say to lessen the feelings of anger with the pair of men. She liked to believe she knew Rallen well enough, but she had never had to deal with a furiously pissed off Rallen before, and it left her both confused and worried.

But as she stood there, just watching, Rallen's expression changed just slightly and he bit his lip harshly as his entire frame started to shake, hands fisted by his sides, digging the nails into his palm. Rex's expression was hardly any different, and for a moment, Jeena thought they were about to start screaming again, but…

"…this is unfair…" Rallen mumbled, lowering his head to let his bangs obscure his eyes. "…all this time… we waited and waited for you… Liz… Liz was so sure… she _knew_ you were alive…coz… coz you promised… you said you'd come right after her…" He tried to continue, but he choked on a poorly concealed sob. "You… you hate breaking promises… always did… so I… I believed her… I believed her when she said you'd come back…" this time he failed to suppress a sob. "I worked so hard… to get in NPP when you left… so that when… when you came back… we could go on missions together… coz you… you said we would if I… if I got in…"

Jeena's expression fell as she heard Rallen release something like a frustrated whimper when he reached up wipe away his tears. "Rallen…

"And… and Liz was always waiting…" Rallen continued softly. "She was… she was always looking out the window… she… she was searching the skies for you…" He paused for a moment to take a breath. "And… and whenever she… she saw a shooting star… she… she'd get all hopeful but… but it was never you… she… how could… how could you do that… to her? Dammit this… this is unfair…"

Rex was quiet for a few moments, before a slow, sad smile crossed his face. "…just Lizzy?"

Rallen blinked and looked up in confusion, his eyes red because of his tears. Rex reached out with one hand, and his fingers lightly moved over Rallen cheek, to the corner of his eye to wipe the tears away.

"You're upset… just because of me leaving Lizzy?" Rex asked softly. "What about you?"

"Wha… what about me?" Rallen demanded, but he choked on a sob as he did. "Li-Liz is more important to you, right? S-so what do I—"

"Heh… you're still placing others' feelings above your own, aren't you?" Rex said with that same smile still playing on his lips as he put his palm on his brother's cheek. "You've always been like that; the safety and feelings of others come before your own, and you'd be willing to suffer a cracked rib if it meant keeping someone else safe. …how old were you again when you did that?" Rex asked suddenly, smirking fondly at Rallen.

"Um… f-four… I think…" Rallen said slowly after a brief moment of thought, and that little tidbit almost made Jeena gawk at him.

"See what I mean? You've always cared more about others than you cared about yourself, even if they were total strangers to you. That's why I always knew that, once you were old enough, you'd make a fine NPP Officer," Rex said warmly, which made Rallen look down slightly, as though he was embarrassed. "Being in NPP revolves around more than just being strong, or smart, or obeying orders. If you don't have the heart to care about others, you're just not meant for the job." For a moment, Rex paused, before his smile became both sad and caring. "And about Liz… Lizzy is special to me, yes… but that doesn't make _you _any less important to me. You're my little brother, and you will _always_ be important to me. _Always_."

Rallen blinked a few times as his brother spoke those words, more tears running down his cheeks with every blink.

"…a…always?"

"Always." Rex reached out and tried to move the other's bangs away, but his fingers passed right through. This made the man frown in slight annoyance and concentration, before he tried again. And this time, his fingers gently moved the orange locks aside. "You grew into a great NPP Officer, Rallen, and I'm so proud of you… my only regret is that I was never there to see you get this far…"

"…R… Rex…"

Rather than say anything, Rex seemed to focus on something, before he moved forward and pulled Rallen into a hug, startling the younger man. That surprise only lasted a moment, though, and Rallen bit his lip briefly before he returned the hug a bit awkwardly (possibly because he feared he wouldn't be able to touch him), burying his face in the man's shoulder. Like this, they stayed for a long time, with Rallen still doing everything he could to keep his tears and sobs at bay, though he wasn't doing such a good job at it. And then Rex spoke the words that broke Rallen's control over his emotions…

"I'm sorry, Rallen… I know that no matter how many times I say it, it'll never make things right… but I am. I really am sorry…"

Rallen's body shook for a moment, and his hands fisted in the 'material' (there wasn't really anything there, after all) of Rex's clothes, and Jeena could actually feel her own eyes beginning to water, just before Rallen released an anguished wail and bawled loudly, clinging to his brother as tightly as he could. And Rex merely held on to his kid brother as the boy cried and wailed until his throat was raw, his own tears still flowing down steadily.

Komainu let out a small, confused whine, clearly not realizing what was wrong, but he could tell that _something_ was off. So the small Spectrobe scurried over and climbed into Rallen's lap, nuzzling into the officer's stomach.

And Jeena, unable to just stand by and watch any longer, moved around them, dropped down behind her partner and wound her own arms around his waist, resting her head along his back. If Rallen noticed her doing so, he didn't show it, but she didn't blame him for it.

She couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of turmoil her partner had to be in right then. They had come all this way to Meido to find his brother, and when they finally found him, they come to the realization that they were already too late. Losing his brother the first time must've been so terrible to him, though Liz had calmed that sadness by saying that he was still alive. Then his mother passed away, and Liz had to take the place of Rallen's caretaker, which was a sadness not even Liz would've been able to calm, she knew. And now he'd been so close to being together with his brother again after so many years… and he was robbed away from him yet again…

Jeena couldn't begin to understand his feelings right then, but just the thought of having to go through all of that made her tears flow like a pair of cascading waterfalls, with no possible end in sight…

For the longest time, they stayed like that, sobs that were both silent and audible coming from two out of four, and a soft whine coming from the smallest of them. It seemed to last for forever, but as Rallen's wails finally began to die down, Jeena became aware of another sound;

Rex's voice…

"_The darkness will come again tonight  
>But it will never come to your door<br>Never to your door  
>For your heart shines bright<br>Shines to chase the darkness away_

_The light will always return to you  
>But until the morning dawns again<br>Dawns again in the morning  
>Let your heart shine bright<br>And let the darkness pass you by_

_As the dark and light continue their fight  
>I shall stay by your side tonight<br>Tonight until the very stars fall asleep  
>As my light joins yours together<br>Sending the darkness away from you_

_I shall always keep watch over you  
>As you are precious to me<br>And thus I shall guard you  
>Until my light is no more<br>And your light outshines mine_"

It was definitely some form of lullaby, but Jeena had never heard it before. Regardless of that, the song was oddly soothing. Rex was a good singer, and it reminded her of the time when Rallen had sung her fear of thunderstorms away. Absently, Jeena wondered if this was what Rex used to sing to Rallen to get the younger boy to go to sleep at night, but the thought wouldn't stick for long, as she felt her consciousness slowly drifting away from her…

* * *

><p>When Rallen blinked his eyes open again, he was laying on his side, which was a bit confusing. Even more confusing was the fact that Jeena was curled up against his back and Komainu against his stomach, still fast asleep. His memory was also a bit fuzzy, and he started to wonder where he was and what he was doing there, before it all came rushing back to him and he almost shot up in alarm. However, a soft, cold touch to his shoulder prevented him from doing so.<p>

"…Rex?"

"Still here…" his brother murmured softly. "…for now."

Those words made Rallen's expression drop as he settled back on his side. "…so you're… you're really…"

"…"

"…this is so unfair…"

"…I know, Rallen. I know…"

Silence fell over them for a few long moments, before Rallen bit his lip.

"What am I gonna tell Liz?"

"…I think… she already knows…"

Rallen blinked and looked up to Rex. "How? We didn't learn you were… were… until…"

Rex merely smiled softly. "I don't know how… she just knows such things without them needing to be said."

"…oh." Rallen remained quiet for a few moments, before he murmured: "…still not going to be easy…"

"I know…" Rex took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, staring ahead of himself for a moment. "…Rall?"

"Yeah?"

"…could you do me a favor?"

"…what kind of favor?"

"…just… could you make sure Liz gets her present?" Rex asked softly, pointing to the small box that Jeena had dropped a little away from them. "I know I'm probably several years too late, but… better late than never, huh?"

Rallen looked over to the box, and a sad frown came over his face as he reached out and pulled to small box to him. "…you really _were_ going to ask…"

"…yeah."

"…on her birthday?"

"…" Rex seemed to consider the question for a moment, before speaking again. "Back when she was in the academy… she would always get showered with gifts from random guys on her birthday and she came to dread it… until she simply stopped caring." The older man gave a soft sigh. "I wanted to give her something special… something to make her look forward to it again… But she wasn't too open about what she wanted."

"…so why propose?"

"…heh… I joked that I could give her a ring on her birthday, and she actually tried to punch me, saying that that wasn't something to joke about… she turned an impressive shade of red, too…" Rex murmured. After a few moments, though, he added: "That… and I'd actually been thinking of asking her soon, anyway…"

"…but… you only knew her for a year then… not even, actually…"

"I know."

"You were alive longer than you knew her…"

"I know."

"…then why? Just for fun?"

"Rallen, a girl's emotions are _very_ fragile. Even Lizzy's. Something like that… should never be taken lightly."

"But… then why?"

Rex merely smiled. "Isn't that obvious already, Rall?"

"…can you really say _that_… after only knowing someone for little time?"

"…It's possible," Rex said softly. "You can't decide it for yourself… and usually you won't know it happened until it smacks you upside the head with a wrench."

Rallen allowed a tiny smirk at Rex's words, before he sobered up. "…do you still love her?"

"…I never stopped loving her…"

Silence befell the two brothers for a few moments, before Rallen shut his eyes sadly. He lay like that for a few moments, gathering his thoughts before looking up again.

"She… she loves you, too, bro…"

Rex blinked and looked over. "She does?"

"Hmhmm… she never said so… but I could tell… I knew there had to be _something_ between you two… I know she… she never stopped loving you, too…"

Rallen blinked when he got his hair ruffled, making him raise his head in slight surprise. Rex merely smiled down at him as he ran his ghostly fingers through his brother's hair. "Thanks, Rall…"

"No prob… I just wish you could come back with us…"

"Me too, Rall… me too…" Looking up to the sky high above them, Rex finally sighed. "…you two should go now… You two still have a job to do, don't you?"

"…yeah…" Rallen cautiously sat up, making sure not to wake Jeena and Komainu, and scooted over to Rex, giving his brother one last hug. "I'll miss you, Rex…"

"I know… I'm gonna miss you, too…" Rex murmured as he returned the embrace. "I love you, lil brother…"

"I love you, too, big bro…"

Rallen could feel his brother's presence fading away, but he refused to let go, until he was grasping at nothing but air and had no choice. He looked around, as though hoping to catch a glimpse of his brother, but he already knew it was a waste of time.

He had never really been there, after all…

Rallen resisted the urge to start crying all over again, and instead looked down to the black velvet box he held in his hand, running his thumb along the gilded edges. Slowly, he flicked it open and looked at the contents, but only for a brief moment before he placed it away safely and turned to his partner again.

He reached over and lightly shook her by her shoulder. "Jeena… Jeen, c'mon, wake up. We gotta go."

Jeena groaned sleepily for a moment, before she pushed up and rubbed at her eyes. "Rallen…?" she murmured, before she stifled a yawn. "Mmm… I must've dozed off… wait! Where's…?"

"Gone," Rallen said simply as he got up to his feet and held out his hand to the pink-haired girl. "Hey, c'mon. Let's go. We still got something to do."

Though a bit confused at first, Jeena allowed him to pull her up, which ended up waking Komainu as well (who had probably fallen asleep not long after they had). Instead of walking back the way they had come, however, Rallen walked back into Rex's ship.

"Rallen?" Jeena called out in surprise, hurrying after a few moments later. When she caught up to her partner, she realized what he was planning, and her expression fell just slightly. "Do you need some help?"

"Nah. He's just being stubborn as usual…" Rallen grumbled, gradually easing his brother's dead body off of the spire, not caring if the dripping blood stained his uniform. "Get… OFF!" he cried out, stumbling backwards a few steps in an attempt to keep the corpse from hitting the floor. "Dammit, Rex… why do you _always _make things difficult?" Rallen grumbled, turning around and pulling his brother onto his back, linking his arms under the man's knees. "Okay… let's go, Jeen."

Jeena only nodded once and then walked after her partner wordlessly.

She didn't know what was going through her friend's head… but nothing she could say would ever make this situation right again…

There was nothing she could do, and she hated it, because Rallen needed the support, and yet she couldn't give it to him.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'll try to get the epilogues up soon. About the song Rex is singing... I made that up on the fly but it has to do with another theory I came up with for Rex's disappearance.**

**To those interested; I posted a picture of Rex and Liz on DA (see my homepage) from before Rex disappeared, along with a number of trivia facts in case you want to use them.**


	9. Chapter 4b

_**Chapter 4b: Presents**_

* * *

><p>Soon enough, they were back in the cave where they had first found Rex. The reason for this was simple; Rex had already found a way down to the lower levels, but he'd been in the middle of digging though the wall when Rallen and Jeena had appeared. And with the tools that the two NPP Officers had on them, it was easy enough to break through.<p>

"Whoo! That would've taken me forever at the rate I was going," Rex laughed out as he and Rallen tore down the last of the wall.

"Heh, good thing we came along then, huh?" Rallen quipped.

Jeena merely smiled as she walked over. "That's… rather deep… isn't it?"

"Sadly… Well, we may as well get to climbing," Rex murmured.

With that said, the small group slowly began their descent, with Jeena calling out her little orb of light again as they went. It wasn't overly difficult to get down, for which they were all very glad, but it was still very dark, even with the light source they had, which wasn't all that much in the first place.

"Ow! Dammit that smarts!" Rex almost howled out as he smacked his forehead into yet another ledge he hadn't spotted in time, absently rubbing the sore spot that would likely be a bruise later.

"Sorry, Rex, but we don't have any other source of light…" Jeena apologized.

"It's fine. I'll manage somehow…"

* * *

><p>After a few minutes of climbing and bumping their head and toes into ledges and hidden rocks, they finally touched down on the bottom of the shaft. Which, by the way, was even darker, thus making it almost impossible to see anything.<p>

"Sheesh! This place is deep!" Rallen exclaimed as he looked up in the direction of the pit from where Rex's ship had fallen.

"Yeah… we went down pretty far…" Jeena said with a small nod. "Thankfully you weren't on the ship when it fell or you might not have been here…"

"You're telling me… esh…" Rex grumbled, hands on his hips as he looked upward to the pit's entrance as well. "Well, whatever, let's just find a way to that scrapheap shall we? I really don't like this place one bit…"

"Right."

"Agreed, let's go."

With that said, the small group began to move ahead, carefully maneuvering around chunks of debris and making their way further into the darkness. Komainu was running ahead of them, sniffing along the ground curiously as they went. The little Spectrobe had obviously managed to pick up that they were looking for something very important, so he was doing whatever he could without Rallen or Jeena needing to tell him.

"Hey, Jeena…" Rallen whispered after a moment, lightly taking his partner's wrist and making her walk a little slower to let Rex walk ahead of them. "So… how's your first impression been of Rex?"

Jeena blinked, but she allowed a semi-amused, semi-teasing smile. "My first impression of your brother is just as I thought it would be."

Rallen quirked an eyebrow up at the cryptic words, waiting a few seconds before actually responding. "Soooo… is that a good thing?"

"Well, he's almost a carbon copy of you, so it depends on how you look at it."

"Hey!"

Jeena allowed a giggle at Rallen's frown/pout, before she looked ahead toward where Rex was scaling one of the pieces of debris, helping Komainu over the large piece as well. "But… he strikes me as a good person," Jeena said with a decisive nod. Turning to Rallen, she said: "He's probably like you in that, too; doesn't know when to give up."

At those words, Rallen actually flushed slightly, but it went unseen in the dark, for which he was thankful. He rubbed the back of his head a bit sheepishly, a small lop-sided grin on his face. "Well uh…"

"Hey lovebirds! If you two are done goofing around, get over here!" Rex suddenly called out, and this time _both_ NPP Officers flushed bright red.

"Th-that's not funny, Rex!" Rallen called out as they hurried over to where the man was waiting.

"So then don't go whispering behind my back, Rall," Rex chuckled out. "Anyway, we got a small problem here…"

When Rallen and Jeena joined Rex and Komainu, they realized immediately what was wrong. Ahead of them was yet another pit, and it was big enough to prevent them from going anywhere, since it was too long to jump over and too wide to shimmy past (which wouldn't have worked anyway without ledges).

"Another pit? Esh… someone really doesn't want us progressing any further…" Rallen grumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "How do we get over this?"

"I'm not sure…" Jeena murmured, even as Rex took a few steps back and looked up. "We need to make a bridge, but we'll need to-"

"Well, how 'bout we drag that stalactite down from where it's hanging?" Rex asked casually, nodding upward to the ceiling. As Rallen and Jeena looked up, Rex quipped: "That thing would be a perfect bridge."

True enough, there was a large stalactite hanging right above the pit that would probably fit perfectly if they could break it off properly. However, it was well out of their range, and it was too big and solid for a child Spectrobe to break loose.

"With all due respect, Rex," Jeena said after a moment, as Rex put his right indexfinger to his mouth and bit down on the material of his glove, pulling it off with just his teeth, "it's a nice idea, but we can't break it loose from the ceiling… it's better if we just…"

"Gimme like 20 seconds and I'll rip that thing loose," Rex said casually as he reached over to roll up his right sleeve.

"Huh?"

Rallen and Jeena exchanged a look as Rex did so, quietly questioning what the older man had just said, before turning to Rex as he placed his glove in his pocket for a moment.

"You got some kind of gadget to pull that thing down, Rex?" Rallen asked curiously with his head slightly cocked to the side.

"'Gadget'? …Hmm… Suppose you could call it that," Rex chuckled, raising his right arm, causing both Rallen and Jeena to stare in a combination of shock and awe.

Rex's right arm to just above the elbow appeared to be made of some sort of dull golden material, though it looked more like it was a collection of particles of varying sizes, some the size of pebbles and others almost the size of a baseball, with pale blue energy-like veins keeping them all clunked together. The particles were positioned in such a way that, if the limb was fully clothed, you wouldn't be able to see it wasn't a natural arm, and they even imitated the nails on his fingers.

"Whoa! What _is_ that?" Rallen asked in awe.

"Ah, just something I found when I was out of Nanairo… Circumstances could've been better, but I suppose I can't complain," Rex quipped with a light shrug as he brought up his hand. "I'll explain those some other time, though. Let's make this here bridge, first."

As he finished saying that, the energy between the particles pulsed suddenly – and the segments broke apart and began to hover in midair around the stump that remained of Rex's arm, making it obvious that the segments actually served as his arm, rather than simply cover it. The energy that had kept them connected now seemed to be keeping them afloat, making the golden material shine a light silvery-blue, almost.

Both Jeena and Rallen watched curiously as the segments hovered for a moment while Rex took a deep breath, as though in concentration, before the segments rushed up toward the stalactite, coalescing and forming a powerful looking claw, which grabbed hold of the bottom of the spire. Rex frowned in thought, as the claw seemed to be tugging on the piece of rock.

"Damn thing's more stubborn than I thought…" he grumbled softly, before he allowed a small smirk. "Ain't gonna help you though!"

The claw flexed its fingers around the spire briefly, as though adjusting its hold, before it yanked sharply, making the spire crack ominously.

"Get the hell down from there already!"

With that said and one more, resounding crash that echoed through the cave and made Jeena and Rallen jump back in surprise, the spire broke loose from the ceiling and the claw released the stalactite, moving out of the way quickly and catching it by the top by drilling its fingers into the surface. And, despite that it wasn't actually attached to Rex's arm right then, the man actually groaned, as though he were struggling to keep the spire in midair.

"Gah! Dammit! Wasn't expecting it to be THIS heavy!"

The claw seemed to shake subtly, but it still lowered the spire into the hole, letting it go only when Rex seemed to be positive it wouldn't fall all the way down. Once he seemed completely sure of this, the claw pried itself loose from the spire and burst apart again, flying back over to Rex and reforming into his arm. The orange-haired NPP Officer took a moment to flex his fingers, before adjusting his sleeve and pulling his glove on again.

"Wow! That was so awesome! What is that thing?" Rallen called out in excitement.

"What it is? Heh, no clue," Rex admitted, rotating his shoulder a bit. "All I really know is that it's completely replaced my right arm after I lost my arm a few years again. Works as well as my old arm… with some added extras."

"I see… was it part of the technology of the planet you ended up on?" Jeena asked, even as they began to climb over the stalactite to cross what was left of the pit.

"Not quite… apparently, it's some kind of 'lost technology' or whatever…" Rex said, using air quotes to emphasize the "lost technology" part. "Wasn't too interested in the stuff, really; that's Lizzy's department… I just remember that it's part of a civilization from couple dozen years ago."

"Lost technology, huh?" Rallen murmured thoughtfully.

"Do you think it's possible to replicate it, Rex?" Jeena asked, almost as curious as her partner.

"I don't think so; this stuff's more like a mineral from what I can tell. Plus, I'd rather not have anyone poking around in it much," Rex quipped. "It serves as my arm now, and I _do_ actually feel heat, cold and pain with this limb. Plus, I dunno if this thing can actually 'heal' if I get injured, and quite honestly; I'd rather not test that."

"Understandable…" Rallen mumbled, as he seemed to think for a few moments.

But before he could say anything, Komainu barked loudly and dashed ahead. Wordlessly, the three humans hurried after the little Spectrobe, down a winding pathway, until they finally arrived inside a wide cave like area.

The walls and part of the ground were littered with razor sharp spires that were sticking out at all angles, and up ahead of them, in the very back of the room, was what remained of what must've been Rex's ship at one point. It was large, a little bigger than the standard patrol cruiser, but it almost looked like the relic spaceship Rallen and Jeena dug up on Nessa. When it had been in one piece, it must've looked quite impressive. Now, it had been reduced to a large metal pincushion.

"Sheesh! I'm glad you managed to jump out before it fell!" Rallen exclaimed in slight shock.

"Yyyyeeeeaaaah… you and me both…" Rex managed to get out, wincing slightly at the thought of what might've happened if he hadn't leaped out. "That woulda really stung…"

Jeena bit her lip a little, knowing just how lucky Rex had been that he managed to jump out in time. If he hadn't…

"Anywho! Let's go!" Rex called out, moving toward the ship casually.

"Hey, bro! Wait up!" Rallen called out, hurrying after with Jeena and Komainu.

"…esh! What a mess!" the taller man grumbled as he stood before the ship. "If this was my cruiser, I dunno who'd kill me first; Grant or Lizzy…"

Rex actually chuckled a bit, but Jeena frowned. However, she didn't say anything about it and instead asked: "So how exactly did you get it down here anyway?"

"How I got it here, huh?" Rex mumbled in thought, tilting his head a little.

* * *

><p>"<em>Oyoooyyyaaawn… eshkivilles… how far away is Himuro from Section Y, anyway?" Rex grumbled in annoyance, rubbing at his eyes to remove the tears that his last yawn had brought on. "I swear… either Nanairo expanded since I was gone, or this pile of dust is slower than I originally thought…"<em>

_Taking a brief moment off the controls to stretch, Rex grumbled a little incoherently under his breath as he stretched out, cracking his fingers as he did. Taking hold of the wheel again, Rex rubbed the back of his head and clucked his tongue._

"_This thing doesn't have autopilot anywhere does it? …Why am I even asking? I checked that before I left!" Rex took a moment to rub the bridge of his nose, before murmuring: "And I gotta stop talking to myself… talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity…"_

_Suppressing another yawn, Rex gazed out upon the open space ahead of him, allowing a small smile. "But… at least I made it back… Wonder if Rallen's made it into NPP while I was gone. I'm sure Lizzy must've been training him properly… well, I hope she did, at least. She said she would, but… …Ah, whatever. I should worry more 'bout my own hide… she's prolly gonna kill me if I dare show up empty-handed… hell, she might do it anyway…"_

_Looking to the side, he allowed a fond smile as his gaze rested on the small object he had left there. Bringing up his right hand, he allowed a few segments of his hand to float over and pick it up, placing it in the palm of his hand before they returned to their original locations in his arm again. "Hope she keeps me alive for long enough to ask her, though… I might be too late already… but hell. Better late than never… I don't think I'd ever be able to forgive myself if I ended up leaving again without asking…"_

_Quietly, he brought it to his chest and sighed softly. "…I wonder what she'll say… Would she even listen? …hope so…"_

_Suddenly, the alarm blared and Rex jumped, the sudden motion causing the object in his hand to fly from his hand to scatter across the floor. "Oh you gotta be! Do I just have the universe's worst possible luck or what?" Rex snarled out as he fiddled with some of the controls, even as a few segments of his arm rushed out from under his glove to quickly grab the fallen object. "Why now of all times? I'm nowhere near Himuro yet! Shit!" Rex roared, slamming his fist on the metal plating. "What to do? This thing doesn't look like it's got the energy to reach Himuro… and the last thing I need is to float around endlessly… Ugh… my luck really su—WHOA!"_

_The last exclamation was because the ship suddenly tilted sideways, almost throwing Rex out of his seat. Somehow, he managed to stay as upright as he could, his right arm coiled around the armrest and his left hand holding onto the wheel._

"_What the hell? …Oh shit, don't tell me…! Crap! Meido's gravity is pulling this damn thing in! Grrr! Said it once, I'll say it again; my luck __sucks__!"_

_With the engines already dying on him, it was really only a matter of time before the ship could no longer resist Meido's gravitational pull and it plummeted down. Of course, Rex wasn't going to go down __that__ easy, and somehow he managed to swerve the ship around for it to do a bellyflop onto Meido's surface, where it skidded along before coming to a stop on the edge of the pit. The sudden halt snapped Rex forward and then backward, smashing his skull into the back of his seat with a resounding crack._

"_OW! DAMMIT!" Rex roared out, gripping his head in both hands as he shook the stars away from his vision. "Damn! That smart! …eep!"_

_Rex stared in slight horror as he realized his ship was now resting rather precariously on the edge of a pit, and he was only a few inches away from tipping over the edge._

"_Oh shit shit shit shit!" he hissed, reaching for the seatbelt and quickly undoing it before scrambling out of the seat and toward the back and the ship's only exit. His rapid footfalls made the ship tilt slightly backwards, but Rex wasn't about to test his luck and, as he reached the door, he threw it open without a second thought and leaped out._

_And not a moment too soon as the ship pitched forward and fell down the pit with a loud crash._

"…_shit… too… close…" Rex breathed out, dropping backwards onto his back with a great sigh of relief. "…that leaves me with another problem, though… how do I get outta here?"_

* * *

><p>"Oh, right… <em>that<em> was where I hit my head… ow…" Rex mumbled, rubbing the back of his head an running his fingers lightly over the forming lump. "Hope I didn't crack my skull right open there…"

"Do you need me to run a scan of it real quick, Rex?" Jeena asked politely.

"Well… if you could, please do."

Jeena nodded and walked over, bringing up her hand, activating her scanner and moving it across the back of Rex's head, searching for any serious injuries. As she came to the spot where he had bumped his head, she paused for a moment. Finally, however, she dismissed the scanner and said: "It's not cracked. But you will have a lump and a bruise there, unfortunately."

"Great… Wonder how long it'll stay that light when I get back…" Rex murmured with a light chuckle before he shook the matter off. "Well, anywho, I'll just go and grab what I left and I'll be right back."

"We'll hel-"

"I'll be fine, Rallen," Rex cut his brother off. "Seriously, I just need to grab a few things and then we can go home."

Rallen allowed a small chuckle with his hands on his hips. "What? You afraid we'll ruin the surprise for-"

"You _dare_ finish that and I'll give you something to laugh about, Rallen," Rex suddenly snarled with a deep scowl on his face, but his mouth had quirked up in a highly amused smirk, as though he was expecting Rallen to finish.

"…Shutting up," Rallen mumbled almost immediately, once again startling Jeena with how easy Rex had managed to quiet her partner.

"Good," Rex quipped, his expression lighting up immediately, before he spun on his heel with a simple: "Be right back."

Once Rex had opened the door to his ship and walked inside, Jeena turned to Rallen.

"What was that about?" she asked curiously.

"Eh? …Oh uh… n-nothing, really…" Rallen coughed, rubbing the side of his chin as he looked off to the side. "Just… stuff… nothing serious."

Jeena quirked an eyebrow at her partner, but Rallen was looking away pointedly for whatever reason. There was something he was hiding from her, but she could already tell it was going to very difficult to get it out of him.

Well… there were other ways to get that information, of course.

For a while, they just stood and waited, but Rex was taking a rather long time to just pick up some items he had forgotten. However, they stayed where they were and waited… until there came a "thud" followed by a pained cry plus curse from Rex from within the ship. Both of them looked up in surprise, but it was Jeena who spoke.

"Rex, is something wrong?

"I'm fine! Just bumped my head trying to find something," Rex called out.

Rallen cocked an eyebrow in question and called out: "I thought you said you knew where it was!"

"Yeah, I already got that, but I just remembered I brought something else, too!" the other man called back in response.

Jeena and Rallen exchanged a confused look, before looking over as Rex came back over, carrying some kind of leather bag with him. The man released a small sigh of what could almost be relief as he stepped up beside them.

"Damn, am I glad I jumped out of that on time…" Rex mumbled, looking back to the ship. "Woulda speared my face through if I hadn't moved…"

"That bad?" Rallen asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah. If it wasn't broken already, it surely would be now… control panel's looking like a giant porcupine," the other man grumbled.

Rallen only chuckled lightly, while Jeena smiled with a mixture of relief and amusement. "So… you found what you were looking for then?"

"Yeah… surprised it didn't shatter when the ship came down, but whatever. I ain't complaining. Here," Rex said simply, tossing the bag to Rallen, who gave a surprised yelp as he caught it.

"Huh…? What's this for?"

"Ah, just something I found back on that planet," Rex mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "You remember the last time Lizzy was reading one of those books from Winleo when she came over?"

"Win-what?" Rallen mumbled, frowning in slight confusion, but Jeena seemed to recognize the name.

"Wasn't that that famous excavator from a few years ago?" she asked, which immediately caused Rallen's face to light up in realization.

"Oh! That excavation booklet she was always burying her nose in? Well… I remember her reading it a few times…" he admitted, though he frowned as he added "but I can't really remember anything about the last time…"

Rex chuckled as he crossed his arms. "She was reading the part where it described how to properly excavate something buried in the ground, remember?"

Rallen only needed a moment to think on that one. "Oh yeah… I was asking her about why there were so many pictures of humps of rock and she explained to me about excavating…"

"Tried to, at least," Rex chuckled. "You were barely 6 at the time, so you didn't really understand everything she said."

"So sue me!"

"You got the money for it?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Not telling you, though!"

Jeena giggled at the minor squabble, and even the boys had to chuckle at their own childishness.

"Anywho, you remember what you said to her?"

That question took Rallen a few moments as he shut his eyes and rubbed his temple.

"_Whuzzat, Lizzy?" a smaller Rallen asked as he climbed on the couch and poked his head under Liz's arm where she was holding her book again. Rex had gone upstairs for a moment to help their mom, so Rallen was left in the living room with Lizzy. Not that he minded much, but Lizzy could be a little dull if his big brother wasn't around._

* * *

><p>"…<em>It's a book, Rallen," she said simply, not even looking over.<em>

"_I know it's a book! We have those in school, too!" Rallen pointed out immediately._

"_So why'd you ask what it was?"_

"_Mooohhh! What's it about, Lizzy?"_

"_Would you stop calling me that?"_

"_But you let Rex call you that!"_

"_If he calls me that he gets a punch to the face, Rallen."_

"_But you let him anyway!"_

_Liz sighed in exasperation and hit her forehead with the book, obviously getting a tad annoyed with him, but that was fine. Rallen knew that Lizzy wasn't a bad person, so he wasn't scared of her one bit. So he had no qualms about climbing into her lap and tugging the book down to look at the pictures, since the words were too small for him to read yet._

"…_why're there pieces of rock on the pictures?" Rallen asked, cocking his head back to look at Lizzy upside down._

_The white-blonde haired woman looked down at him for a moment longer, seemingly debating between telling Rallen to get off or just tossing him off, but eventually, she merely rubbed her temple and said with a half-concealed sigh: "This is about archeology, Rallen. There's fossils in those pieces of rock that have to be excavated properly before they can be displayed in the museum."_

"…_huh? I dun get it…" Rallen whined, making Liz look to him in slight annoyance._

"_This isn't for little kids, Rallen."_

"_I'm not little! I'm almost 6 years old!"_

"_Meaning you're still just a kid."_

"_You're mean, Lizzy!"_

"_Uh-huh…"_

_Rallen spent the next few minutes pouting, arms crossed over his chest and back pressed against Lizzy's stomach, while the girl in question continued to read silently. They remained like this for a few minutes, until Rallen noticed something in the pictures._

"…_Hey, that looks like a leg!"_

"…_It should. Since it __is__ a leg."_

"_There's someone in the rock?"_

"…_No, Rallen. It's just the remains of someone."_

"_Remains?"_

"…_Someone fell in the mud, couldn't get out, and turned to stone. And these people dig them out again."_

"_Oooooh! So if they get out again, can they go back to normal?"_

"…_Maybe."_

"_That is so cool! I wanna dig out a person too when I grow up!"_

"_I thought you wanted to be NPP when you grew up…"_

"_That too! I wanna do both!"_

"…_Seriously… you can't be two things at a time."_

"_I so could!"_

"…" _Liz sighed again. "If you say so, Rallen…"_

* * *

><p>"Oh… right. I told her I wanted to go excavating myself one day. …no way…" Rallen stared at his brother in surprise, but the older man merely smirked with his arms crossed over his chest. Without another word, Rallen pulled open the bag he had been tossed and reached inside, feeling around for whatever had been stuffed in there.<p>

His fingers soon found the rough surface of what was unmistakably rock, and from the feel of it, it had been carved in a cube. It was bigger than he though originally, though, so he had to use two hands to pull the item out. And as he thought, it was a large cube of rock, but sticking out from one of the sides was something that was obviously not a mere piece of rock sticking out at an awkward angle.

"This is…"

"Yeah. Some kinda fossil I picked up there. Place was literally full of 'em, really and I couldn't choose so I picked one at random," the other man said with a shrug.

Jeena frowned a little at the odd shape of what she believed was either an elbow or a knees of something tiny. In fact, given the size of the lump of rock, it had to be around Komainu's size. Which made her wonder if maybe, _just maybe_…

Bringing up her hand, Jeena activated her scanner and ran it over the cube for a moment, just to confirm her suspicions. And she was not disappointed.

"This isn't just a fossil…" she said, drawing the boys' attention. "It's a Spectrobe fossil."

"It is?" both of them asked in slight surprise, looking to the hump of rock Rallen was holding.

"I'm sure it is," Jeena said with a nod, before she gave a small smile. "But there's only one way to know for sure, right?"

At that, Rallen grinned and pumped his fist. "Right! Let's get back to the cruiser and get this little guy out of this hunk of rock!"

Rex chuckled. "Sure it's going to be that easy?"

"Ha! You just wait and see, bro!"

* * *

><p>And see he did. As Rallen got seated back in the cruiser behind what Rallen and Jeena called their little "lab", he had been a little skeptical, despite the rather impressive amount of excavation tools they had. But as Rallen got to work, Rex could only stare as Rex effectively used both the scanner and laser tools to get the majority of the rock cluster cut down to size in less than 20 seconds. In the next 15, he had picked up a small hammer and had begun carefully breaking off the larger chunks he had missed with the laser. Then he had pulled out the small drill to get to some smaller, more difficult to reach spots, before he finally picked up a blow tool to get rid of the last remaining fragments of rock.<p>

His final time according to Jeena's timer was 53.31 seconds.

"Okay, I admit; I'm impressed," Rex laughed out as Rallen stood up again, a big grin on his face and holding the fossil in his hands.

Rallen merely chuckled, before he brought up the fossil again. "Well, you were right, Jeena. It's definitely a Spectrobe."

"Yeah… but not any kind we've seen thus far on Nanairo or Kaio…" Jeena agreed with a small nod, even as Komainu barked happily, hopping about everyone's feet at the prospect of meeting a new friend.

"In that case, how 'bout we—Rex? You okay?" Rallen asked suddenly as Rex reached out for his head with a slight groan.

"Yeah, I'm fine… think that last hit is starting to kick in right about now… dammit, like my head's gonna split open…" the taller man grumbled as he held his head with one hand.

"Maybe you should lay down, then," Jeena offered. "It has been a tiring day."

"Yeah, and it's not even noon, yet…" Rallen murmured.

"Might be a good idea… I could use a break after all that crap… You got some aspirin, Jeen?"

"I should. I'll be right back," the pink-haired girl said, heading out of the room for the moment.

Rallen watched her go for a moment, before he set the fossil aside for the moment. "C'mon. I'll show you where you can crash for the time being."

"Thanks, bro."

Rallen walked ahead of Rex toward where they kept the resting quarters, which was only really used if the pair of NPP Officers were dead tired and had no other place to spend the night. Since patrols were usually done daily and allowed NPP's to take necessary breaks when on other planets in Nanairo, where they could rest for free at the barracks, it wasn't often needed for them to use it. And as tempting as it was to take a nap in the middle of a patrol mission, it wasn't something that was recommended, given that anything could happen if no one was present to pilot the cruiser.

"Here we go," Rallen said, gesturing for his bed. "You can rest here until your head's feeling better."

"Great. Knowing my luck, I'll need it for when I run into Liz again…" Rex mumbled, rubbing his temple briefly with his right hand before he plopped down on the bed.

This action made Rallen turn his attention to his brother's right arm again. He'd only seen him use the limb once, but he couldn't get the image of the limb breaking apart and ripping down the stalactite out of his mind. While he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know just what kind of accident had cost Rex his arm and got him the replacement that he ended up with, that didn't stop his endless curiosity toward it.

"Say, Rex?"

"Yeah?"

"Um… about your arm… I was wondering… well um…" Rallen paused to scratch at his chin as Rex looked up at him. "Uh… would you mind if I… um, you know…"

Rex allowed a chuckle as Rallen struggled to find the words he needed to ask what he wanted, before he shook his head. "You're curious about what it's like, right?"

"Well… yeah, kinda."

The taller man allowed a smile, reaching for his right hand and removing his glove, revealing his dark golden and blue-veined limb. Before he started talking though, he patted the bed beside him, and Rallen immediately moved over and sat down beside his brother. "I'll be honest; I really don't know all too much about it myself. All I really know is that it responds to my body in the same way my actual arm would've. Breaking it up and shaping it into other stuff took me a lot of practice, though, and I had to be extremely carefully not to accidentally break it up to pieces."

"Really?"

"Yeah… Woke up one night to find most of arm scattered around the room trying to move my things about." Rallen actually laughed for a moment, and Rex chuckled. "Anywho, like I said, it responds just like a normal arm, and half the time I don't even have to think about it."

"Huh… so you have no idea what it was originally for?" Rallen asked, reaching over and poking the material. He was a bit surprised that it moved under his prodding finger in the same way his own arm would, until it came to the point where the bone should be. "Wow… that's impressive."

"I know… And no, unfortunately, I got no idea. I was just looking for a way off the place and I get wrapped up in an accident and end up with this thing on my arm and my depth perception screwed."

"I se—wait, what?" Rallen choked out in surprise.

Rex blinked briefly and looked like he was about to say something, before he allowed a small smirk. "Oh, right. I let my bangs grow over it…" he mumbled, reaching up with his hand and moving his bangs out of the way.

Rallen stared in shock when he saw the scar that ran over Rex's right eye, which was now almost entirely white, both the iris and pupil having lost most (if not all) of their pigments. "Y-your eye…!"

"Yeah… I don't even remember what I pulled to get this old thing," Rex admitted, letting his bangs fall over his eye again, smoothing them out a bit absently as he continued, "but since it's not exactly 'pretty-looking', I decided to let my bangs grow over it to hide it. Not like I can actually see with it anymore, so it doesn't bother me much."

"Much?"

"Well, I had to get used to not moving them aside, after all."

Rallen was silent for a few moments, but then he chuckled a bit, suddenly realizing something. "Well, guess that means you and Liz make a perfect couple, right?"

"Where did _that_ come from suddenly?" Rex asked with a confused frown.

"Well… Liz's blind on the left ever since… you know. I'm just saying, with you being blind right—"

"How did she get blind?"

That question nearly made Rallen jump, but somehow, he'd expected it. "Well… half-blind, actually… but I think it happened when you two got off the cruiser _that_ time… But she never blamed you for that!" Rallen added quickly upon seeing the slight shift in his brother's expression. "I mean, it wasn't your fault! It's not like you could've prevented the cruiser from blowing up at that time, right?"

Rex stared at his younger brother for a few more moments, before he let out a short breath of what could only be relief. "Really? Whew… that's good…" he breathed. "Is… is she alright beside that?"

"Yeah… Just a bit depressed coz you were away, that's all."

"Lizzy? Depressed?" Rex let out with a chuckle, before he gave a short bout of laughter. "That doesn't sound like her at all…"

"You'd be surprised," Rallen quipped with a small smile.

"Uh-huh, sure…"

Just then, Jeena walked into the room, carrying two aspirin in one hand and a bottle of water in the other. Spotting the pair sitting on the bed, she allowed a small smile. "Am I interrupting?"

"Nah, it's fine, Jeen," Rex said, waving the matter off.

Jeena nodded and walked over and handed both items to the taller man. "Well, here you are."

Rex nodded and accepted both items with a small "Thanks," before he popped both pills in his mouth, removed the bottle's cap, put it to his mouth, and then tossed both his head and the bottle back, letting the water pour into his mouth. Jeena could only stare as Rex gulped down the entire contents of the bottle in only a few seconds, but Rallen didn't seem surprised and he only chuckled at Jeena's expression.

"Woo! I needed that!" Rex exclaimed once he had finished the entire thing and removed it from his lips.

"…w-wow… you must've been really thirsty, huh?" Jeena managed to get out.

"Yeah, and _damn!_ Did that taste good!" Rex laughed out. "Can't believe I actually missed the taste of _water_, of all things!"

"Wasn't there any water where you ended up then?" Rallen asked, a bit curious.

"Oh there was… but that stuff was horrible…" Rex growled out, before he brought up one hand to cover his mouth as he yawned. "Hoo-boy… That one came outta nowhere…"

Rallen and Jeena exchanged a small look accompanied by a smile as Rallen stood up. "Well, we'll just let you rest for now, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah… sure…" Rex mumbled, rubbing at his eye for a moment, but it only made Rallen smile more.

As the two NPP's headed for the door, Rex kicked off his boots and dropped himself back on the bed with a great sigh, his eyes already shut and one arm below the pillow to support his head and neck. Rallen paused at the doorway as he was about to step through, and Jeena watched him stare at his brother for a few moments, even as Komainu hopped on the bed and onto Rex's stomach to curl up, before he spoke.

"Hey, Rex?"

"Yeah?" Rex hadn't even bothered to open his eyes at the call, let alone turn to the other boy, indicating just how tired he had to be.

"…Welcome home."

"…thanks. Now get outta here before I get grumpy, Rall."

Rallen laughed and nodded, even if Rex couldn't see it. "Alright. G'night."

And with that, he stepped out and allowed the door to close, turning to Jeena with a grin.

"So… what do you think of Rex now?"

Jeena giggled. "I was right."

"Eh?"

"You two are a perfect mirror image of each other."

"Is that a good thing?"

"Depends on how you look at it."

"Hey now!"

Jeena merely laughed quietly as the pair headed back for the cockpit.

* * *

><p><strong><strong>AN: Never keep someone sleep-deprived from a nap. Heh... As said in the other chapter, I'll get the epilogues up as soon as I can.****

**To those interested; I posted a picture of Rex and Liz on DA (see my homepage) from before Rex disappeared, along with a number of trivia facts in case you want to use them.**


	10. Epilogue a

_**Epilogue a: Final Message**_

* * *

><p>When they came back to the cruiser, they remained silent all the way, with Rallen still carrying his brother's corpse. Rallen immediately went to their resting chambers and finally set down his brother against his bed. The back of his uniform was sticky and reeked of blood, but Rallen couldn't bring himself to care. Jeena came into the room a little later, wordlessly carrying a first aid kit, as though she already realized what Rallen was planning.<p>

Rallen only nodded and started to remove the bloodstained clothes that covered his brother's body. He paused once he had the shirt off, however, to move Rex's bangs aside. Jeena gasped in alarm at the large scar that ran over the man's eye, but Rallen only frowned sadly as he ran his fingers over it briefly, before letting the bangs drop again.

With the shirt gone, Rallen picked up the roll of gauze and began to wrap it across his brother's chest, and Jeena moved over to help him, to cover the gaping hole that neither of them wished to think about or even look at. Once done with that, Jeena moved away and walked to one of the machines they had in the room.

It was something that Rallen fondly referred to as 'the Tailor'. Given their profession, it wasn't uncommon for them to rip up their uniform or smash their armored gauntlets or boots. Since there were times when NPP Officers couldn't be on inhabited spots of the planet all the time, the higher ups had deemed it necessary (for both safety and vanity) for all ships to have such a machine. It allowed them to warp in a new uniform from NPPHQ in the event it was needed.

Jeena wordlessly typed in the required items in the required size (having already scanned Rex for the measurements), and watched as the items were warped in. Picking them up, she walked back to Rallen to help him silently. It took them a little while to get the items on Rex, however, as rigor mortis was steadily starting to creep in on the body, so they moved as fast and careful as they dared.

And finally, Rallen pulled his brother's body upright and placed him down upon his bed, fully clothed in the NPP uniform, with the only real exception being his right arm, given that he was missing quite a chunk of the limb. If they didn't know any better, they could almost swear that Rex was merely sleeping.

After a moment longer of just staring down at the corpse (a word Rallen loathed to use), they finally left the room behind and returned to the cockpit, with Komainu hurrying on behind them. And still they did not speak a word until they were both seated once again.

"…so… let's… go home…" Rallen murmured softly, even though he was already starting the engines up.

Jeena nodded in response. "Yeah… let's go…"

And with that said, the cruiser lifted off of the planet's surface and then took off.

* * *

><p>They were halfway from Meido to Kollin when the comm system suddenly beeped, signaling they had an incoming call.<p>

Rallen looked a little blankly at the comm when it went off, but he seemed hesitant to answer. Jeena wouldn't blame him, but they were required to answer, still, so she typed a few things and opened the link.

As the screen flickered on, it was Grant's face that greeted them.

"_Rallen, Jeena. Where have you two been?_"

"Ah, sorry, sir… we've been… a little sidetracked," Jeena said, her own voice cracking just slightly.

And Rallen didn't even try to say anything; he just stared ahead of him silently, lost in his thoughts. He knew it wasn't polite, especially in front of Commander Grant, but at that particular point, it really didn't matter to him if it was polite or not.

"_Sidetracked? You were outside of communication range for most of the day. What happened?_"

"Um… a-actually…" Jeena didn't dare to finish, and instead looked over to her partner. But Rallen said nothing. He didn't even bother to look up from what he was doing.

"_Rallen, what happened?_" Commander Grant demanded firmly, but once again, Rallen didn't even look up. The look in his eyes was distant, as though he was only there physically, with his mind several light-years away.

Jeena bit her lip, realizing that her partner would not be in any condition to answer, so she spoke up for him. "With all due respect, sir, it's been a rather exhausting day for us both. We'll be back home soon and will speak to you about this matter later."

Though Grant clearly wasn't satisfied with that answer, the fact that Rallen wasn't talking was evidence enough that something had gone wrong. After a moment longer, Grant finally nodded.

"_Very well. I will see you when you do, then._"

And then the connection was cut once again.

Jeena looked at the controls for a moment longer, before speaking. "Rallen…?"

"I don't want to talk right now, Jeen…"

The pink-haired girl frowned a bit angrily at Rallen at that. She could understand that he was shaken from the whole event, but this just wasn't him. This wasn't the Rallen she knew and loved. However, being angry at him right now would do more harm than good, she knew. So instead, she reached out, making sure to remove any trace of anger from her expression, and put her hand over his.

Rallen actually blinked and glanced over to their joint hands, before he finally looked over to Jeena.

"I know this must feel really painful, and… while I can't say I know what you're going through… I do know that bottling everything up is not going to help." Those words, surprisingly, made Rallen tense, so Jeena continued. "You're only going to make it worse for yourself in the long run, so… please, _talk_ to me, Rallen. That's what friends are for… right?"

Rallen stayed silent for a few long moments, looking back ahead after a bit. Jeena waited for several long moments for a response, but when none came, she made to pull back her hand… only to stop when Rallen's thumb slid out from under her fingers to rest on top of them instead.

"…thanks, Jeena…"

It was quiet, but it was enough. Jeena smiled and squeezed his hand a little in response.

"Anytime, Rallen…"

* * *

><p>It was around mid-afternoon by the time that their cruiser docked at NPPHQ, and, in comparison to when they left, the place was bustling with activity.<p>

Rallen gave a heavy sigh as he ran a hand through his hair. "…How'm I supposed to tell Liz?" he murmured softly to himself.

Jeena, for once, had no response to her friend's question. While she didn't know what kind of relation Rex and Liz had had when they had been partners, she knew very well that this could not end well in the slightest. This was going to end in tears, no matter what.

After taking a deep breath, Rallen got up wordlessly and headed out of the cockpit, Komainu hurrying after him. Jeena didn't question him and silently began shutting down the cruiser for the time being.

* * *

><p>As Rallen arrived at the room where they had left Rex, the young man looked to what was left of his brother and felt a sharp pang in his chest. His brother had not moved an inch since they had placed him in the pod, which was not something Rallen was used to seeing. Rex was known to twist and turn restlessly in his sleep for at least a good few hours before he was able to get comfortable, even in his own bed. Seeing him so still… it really didn't sit well with Rallen.<p>

Slowly, he moved over to the pod, and watched the body for a moment longer, before he kneeled down beside it.

"…Bro… we're home…" he said softly, reaching out to lightly rest a hand on his brother's shoulder.

Of course, there was no response, and, though Rallen had already known he would not receive an answer, he couldn't help but feel nothing but sadness and something that came hauntingly close to despair. However, he quickly bit down those emotions, gritted his teeth and took a deep breath.

"You're… you're still tired, huh?" he murmured slowly, though he didn't expect an answer. "'s Okay… just… just rest for now… we… we're just gonna see Grant and… and Lizzy real quick, okay? So… you just wait here… kay?"

After a moment more of waiting, Rallen stood up and walked away again, resisting the urge to break down and cry again. His tears wouldn't help, he knew…

Tears would not bring his brother back…

* * *

><p>NPPHQ was, in one word, busy when the small group stepped out of the cruiser. The techs were running from one corner of the room to the next to either pick up tools, help their friend, or to move to one of the other cruisers that needed a checkup. The NPP officers themselves were not so busy and seemed to be taking it easy as they left their cruisers in the care of the techs, heading out of the hangar to get something to eat or to enjoy themselves in another fashion.<p>

Rallen didn't even take notice of it as they made their way to the exit, completely ignoring everyone who tried to strike up a conversation with him, leaving Jeena to apologize for his "rude" behavior. Of course, Jeena knew why her partner was acting the way he was, but she wasn't about to just tell everyone there about it without Rallen's permission.

And given how he was behaving, that would not be happening any time soon. She just hoped that her friend would be back to his old self soon.

* * *

><p>The trip from the hangar to the Commanders' office took them only a few minutes, though they did have to stop a few times to greet a few people, though Rallen, of course, said nothing.<p>

Despite their small breaks, however, they made good time in getting to Grant's office. Jeena was the one to knock on the door, which was answered by a slightly muffled "Enter," from Grant.

Once they were in the room, Grant spent a few more moments studying the reports before him, before he turned to the small group.

"So… are you ready to talk about what happened, yet?" he asked sternly, though there was something that could've been dread in his eyes if either Jeena or Rallen had bothered to look.

However, Jeena had looked to the side and was rubbing her arm, whereas Rallen was staring down at the floor, his eyes empty and unseeing, still. Anyone looking at the pair could tell that what they were about to say was not going to be pretty, or pleasant.

It took a few moments, but Rallen finally managed to find his voice enough to be able to speak at least a little. "Yes sir… Commander Marks… requested us to travel to Ziba to… to pick up m…" At this point, he paused for a moment to swallow the lump in his throat and to take a deep breath. "To pick up my brother…"

When he said those words, Grant's stern expression shifted into one of shock. "Your… brother? You mean Rex is…?"

"…was alive… yes…" Rallen choked out, suppressing the churning in his stomach, with a lot of difficulty, and even then, it refused to go away entirely. "He was… outside of Nanairo for the past 12 years… and he… he came back just today…"

Jeena turned to face her partner, a small, sad frown on her face. Rallen's face was now almost entirely blank, in a manner that was hauntingly similar to Liz's when she wanted no one to know what she was thinking. Perhaps that was something that Rallen had picked up on during the time he had been living with the Commander in question, but either way, it was an expression that Jeena hoped she'd never have to see again on her partner's face once this was over.

Grant also seemed to notice the unusual behavior of the NPP Officer, and his expression became actually concerned for once. "That isn't the end of the news, is it?"

"…No sir… there was an… accident… that caused Rex's ship to crash on Meido…" Rallen said, and, for a brief moment, both his carefully erected mask and his voice cracked. "He… he didn't survive the crash…"

Silence befell Grant's office for numerous long, tense seconds, in which neither spoke, nor moved. Rallen had aimed his gaze back down to the floor again once he had finished saying what had to be said, possibly to get his thoughts in order again and to prevent his mask from cracking any further than it already had.

'I'm not gonna cry, dammit. I'm _not_ gonna cry!' he thought to himself angrily, though nothing in his stance betrayed any of his inner turmoil.

'_Because boys don't cry, eh?_'

Rallen wasn't sure why his brother's words suddenly echoed through his head, but he found a certain solace from hearing them.

"I… I see…" Grant finally managed to get out, but it took him some time longer before he was really able to speak to the pair normally. Well… as normal as he could, anyway. "This is… tragic news. I… am sorry for your loss, Rallen."

Rallen only managed to shake his head quietly. He wasn't expecting words of comfort, because, no matter what was said, it would not bring his brother back. And besides, he had a feeling that there weren't any words in the entire star system that could possibly make him feel any better.

"I… I know that this must be difficult for you… but… were you able to… recover the body?" Grant asked slowly.

This time, it was Jeena who spoke up, as she had finally managed to locate her own voice. "Yes sir," she confirmed with a small nod. "He… he's still in the cruiser. We thought it would be better to inform you of the matter before moving him."

"I see…" Grant murmured slowly, seemingly lost in thought for a moment, before he finally looked up. "Have you informed Commander Marks of this, yet?"

"…No sir…" Rallen managed to get out. "Not… not yet… We… were going to tell her after…"

Grant nodded slowly to show that he understood, before he took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Alright… Then… I suppose it's better if you go now. We will talk about what to do about… about your brother, later."

'He was about to say "body" again, huh?' Rallen thought to himself, but he nodded nonetheless to show he understood.

"Alright then… you're dismissed…"

* * *

><p>The walk to Liz's office was relatively short, but it seemed to take much longer than usual for some reason. Maybe it was because of the tension in the air around them, but whatever the reason, when they finally reached the door to her office, it was mid-afternoon<p>

"…well… here goes…" Rallen murmured softly, and reached up to knock, though it took much more willpower than it had that morning. Still, he managed to knock, twice, and then stepped back to wait.

"…"

"…nothing," Jeena said with a worried frown. "Do you think she's out?"

"Maybe… I'm… not sure…" Rallen murmured.

'_She already knows…_'

When those words reverberated through his head, Rallen frowned a little and rubbed his temples, feeling a headache begin to build right there. 'Urgh… she already knows… what?'

There was no response to his question, so he merely shook his head, reached out, and knocked again, three times.

This time, there was a solemn, almost emotionless call from beyond the door. "Door's open."

Jeena allowed a small frown, before she turned to her partner as he was about to open the door. "…You want me to go with you, Rall?" she asked, despite having a feeling she knew the answer already.

"N… no, that's okay… I'll be okay… thanks anyway, Jeena…"

Jeena nodded and stepped back to lean against the wall. "Okay, I'll just wait here then." Even as she said that, she couldn't blame Rallen for wanting to go alone; Commander Marks was a woman with a lot of pride, and, more than likely, she would not be able to let go of her own restrictions if she wasn't around those she trusted explicitly.

Not that she didn't trust Jeena, but Rallen was almost like family to her, so she'd be more inclined to drop her guard around him. And in this case, maybe that was for the best.

Rallen took a deep breath before he opened the door and stepped in, the door closing behind him.

* * *

><p>Rallen stood for a moment longer against the door, breathing deeply, mentally preparing himself for what would undoubtedly come, before he dared to step further into the office and to Liz's desk, where the woman in question was sitting. She seemed to be completely engrossed in some reports on her PC, but her eye wasn't moving, indicating that she was just staring blankly at the screen.<p>

For a moment, Rallen just stood there, trying to work his voice, but finding that it had abandoned him. It took him at least a full minute before he was able to scrape it together again.

"…L… Liz…"

Said blonde blinked once, and then turned to face Rallen, finally. "…Yes?"

'…sh-shit… how am I… how could… dammit! How do I say this?'

"…um… well… y-you see, we… uh…"

'_Rallen… she already knows…_'

'Guh…! Sh-shut up whoever you are! How the hell would she-'

"…he's not coming back, is he?"

Rallen froze, and then he slowly raised his eyes to face Liz properly, but she had shut her eye and was holding her head with one hand. She seemed… almost _old_ like that. Liz had always looked barely any older than her mid-twenties, despite that she was already over 30, but now… she almost appeared twice he actual age with how she sat and the expression on her face.

"…H… how did… how did you…? I…" Rallen choked out.

Liz didn't answer for a long moment, seemingly lost in her own thoughts. After a minute had passed, however, she stood up from her seat and walked around the desk until she stood in front of Rallen.

"…I don't know…" she finally confessed, reaching out and placing a hand on his cheek. "I just do…"

Rallen blinked slowly, his mind needing several long moments to process what she had just said, but those minutes were enough for Liz to pull him into a hug, his head resting against her shoulder with one of her hands placed on the back of his head and the other placed on his back.

He blinked slowly, his mind unable to catch up so suddenly, but as the situation began to sink in, the emotions he had been bottling up since returning to Kollin burst and he broke down. He clung to Liz with both hands as he cried, unable to stop himself from crying out in a kind of agony that not even the Krawl could've hoped to inflict on him. His heart was hurting, like someone was trying to forcibly, and slowly, twist it loose from his chest. His tears flowed endlessly, and he felt a third river of the salty liquid dripping onto his hair, even if he did not hear its owner's cries, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

It was just so unfair…

"I-I-I'm… I'm so sorry…!" Rallen bawled out. "I'm so sorry! If-if we'd gotten there a little sooner… I'm so sorry…!"

"…it wasn't your fault, Rallen…" Liz whispered into his ear, moving slightly back to give him a small kiss to his temple; her way of trying to cheer him up if he was feeling down. "There's just some things… you can't stop…"

Rallen whimpered as he clenched his eyes shut and held tight to Liz. "It's not fair…" he moaned out. "It's not fair… what did he do wrong? Goddammit why! Why did… why him? Why? _Why?_"

Liz had no response to Rallen's endless litany of "why". She had no answer to that question; she was asking the very same question as well, after all.

"It's not fair… dammit this is… this isn't fair…" Rallen choked out, even as Liz lightly rocked him, as though he were a child. And in a way, that's how he felt right then. He just wanted to wake up from this nightmare and find out that none of this was real, but he knew he wouldn't. This was reality, and there was no escape from it.

And so, for the second time that day, he cried, cried until his voice was gone and his eyes ran dry, clinging to Liz, who merely stood there, holding him close and silently offering him the support he so desperately needed. He felt like a child all over again, when he had lost his mother to some unknown disease, only it felt so much worse now. Losing someone in your family was never a pleasant feeling, and even less when you lose every single member of your family you ever knew. Rallen had only ever known his mother and his brother. His father had never been there, and his mother didn't have any siblings.

He lost everything…

Everything…

'…_no._'

'…?'

'_Rallen… you haven't lost __everything__ yet…_'

'…huh?'

'_You still have others… there's still others who love you… people who you love in turn, right?_'

'But… but I…'

'_If you love them… from the bottom of your heart… never let them go. Do you understand? Never let go._'

Rallen blinked slowly, his sobs gradually lessening to where they were no more than occasional sniffles. Once he had calmed down, Liz pulled back carefully and looked at the young man before her. She didn't speak; she only reached up and ruffled his hair. The gesture sent a pang of pain through Rallen's heart, as he was immediately reminded of his brother, but as he looked up, he realized he wasn't the only one.

"…dammit… why'd I go and do that…?" he choked out, stepping back and trying to rid himself of his own tears. "You… I was going to… I… dammit…"

"Rallen…" Liz said solemnly, placing one hand on his cheek and using her thumb to wipe away the tears still leaking from his eyes. "I know it's hard… but we can't let this weigh us down. Rex wouldn't want to see us mope around until we waste away, too. We have to move on. Move on and cherish those whom we love."

Rallen bit his lip to the point where he almost drew blood. However, he managed to nod slowly, knowing very well that Liz was right. Like Rallen, Rex would put the safety and feelings of others above his own, so, even with all that happened, Rex wouldn't want to see them crying and clinging to the traces of ghosts.

Of course, that didn't make it any easier, but what else could they do?

"…ah…" Rallen quickly reached into his pocket, where he had kept the small velvet box that held Rex's present for Liz's birthday of 12 years ago. "Um… Lizzy? This… I… I found this in… in his ship…" he said slowly, holding it out to her. "I… I think it was for you…"

Rallen didn't miss the shock and surprise that passed over her face as she realized just what she was looking at, even if she tried her very best to hide it. She carefully reached out for the object, as though she feared it would disappear if she came too close, taking the object in her hands with only her fingertips.

She held it lightly, with her fingers smoothing out the velvet material of the box, before she, slowly, flipped it open with only her thumb nail.

Inside the box rested a silver ring with a light purple stone surrounded by smaller stones of deep ocean blue and pale yellow the color of sand set in an infinity symbol around the purple stone. The combination of colors reminded her of nightfall on Nessa, when the skies would turn purple after the sun's departure and the sand and water seemed to glow with an ethereal light. A sight she had always adored more than anything in her childhood.

"…that idiot…" Liz mumbled softly, though her words seemed to hitch. "That stupid… idiot…"

Rallen already knew that there was no way that Liz could remain indifferent to this. There was no way there could be any misunderstanding about what Rex had intended to do with that ring.

And, as angry as she tried to make herself out to be, there was no way she could prevent her tears from falling. So Rallen stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, just as she started to sob quietly, her entire frame shaking subtly.

Rallen had never attempted to really comfort anyone before, so this was a first for him. Thankfully, he did remember how Rex or Liz would comfort him, so he utilized what he knew and rubbed his hands in circles along Liz's back as he gently rocked her. Even though it felt weird to him to be the one comforting Liz, he ignored those feelings and focused only on being there for her, because she needed it right then.

As he blinked, though, he was startled when a tear slipped down his own cheek.

'…_I'm sorry…_'

'…?'

'…_I'm so sorry…_'

It wasn't until that moment that Rallen realized that the voice echoing through his head… was more familiar than he had first made it out to be.

'…Rex?'

Rallen couldn't say he was as startled as he should've been. Hell, he'd already met his brother's ghost, after all, so what was a little possession, really? Though he had to wonder why Rex had not spoken up earlier or more.

'…_Rallen… could you… ask her for me…wh-what she would've said? I… I need to know… please…_'

The boy gave a small, unnoticeable nod, though he had to pause briefly to think. He couldn't say _why_ he was asking, of course, nor could he ask _the_ question. So how…

As he was thinking, an idea suddenly came to him. One that he only needed a second to consider.

"…Hey, Liz?" he called out when she had managed to calm herself a little bit. "Does… does this mean I can call you 'sis' now?"

Not surprisingly, this caused her to tense, though that was mostly in surprise, before she moved back slightly to look at him. Her expression was one that he couldn't explain or decipher fully. Rallen could almost feel his brother's anxiety, and it was just about to show on his face, but before it could, Liz smiled, _actually smiled_, and then reached up to ruffle his hair.

"You little goof…" she mumbled softly. "Didn't I already tell you that you could when I took you in?"

Rallen blinked once, twice, blinking a bit stupidly, before he spoke slowly: "You… you mean…?"

Rather than answer verbally, however, Liz merely reached into the box and looped her left ring finger through it. Even with her glove on, it was a perfect fit.

Rallen only stared for a long time as Liz lightly fisted her hand and placed it softly against her own chest, before he was able to smile, and he felt his brother's relief flooding over him, and also his joy, mixed with sadness at not being able to be there for Liz. After he managed to swallow down his (and his brother's) anxiety, he said: "Li… sis… you–"

But before he could finish, the Commander lightly bopped Rallen to his head with her knuckles. It didn't hurt, but it sure surprised him. "I'll be fine, Rallen," she said quietly. "You don't have to worry about me. I always knew it was possible that he would never come back… I always knew." She paused to place a hand on his cheek and wipe away the tears. "That's just the kind of risks that come with this job."

"But…"

Liz put her finger over his lips to silence him, and shook her head 'no'. "Enough, Rallen. Now go. You have someone waiting for you, don't you?"

Rallen wanted to say something, _anything_… but he couldn't…

He just didn't know what to say…

"Don't let it slip away, Rall," Liz said suddenly, making him look up in surprise. "Don't let your chances slip away… like they did for us."

Upon hearing that, Rallen actually tensed in slight alarm, as his mind immediately caught on to what Liz meant, and what _could_ happen at any time. She had Rex had believed they'd have all the time in the world… and that assumption had cost them dearly.

"…I… I get it…" he said slowly with a nod, before he reached up and rapidly rubbed at his eyes to remove any traces of tears, and took a deep breath. Once he was sure he could keep himself under control, he hugged Liz one more time, which as wordlessly returned, whispered a final apology, and then headed for the door.

He knew exactly what he had to do now…

* * *

><p>In the meantime, Jeena was leaning back against the wall outside Liz's office, and she was starting to worry just slightly. The rooms were soundproof, so anything being said in the room staid in the room. She knew that the pair had to have a lot to talk about, but did it really have to take so long?<p>

Just as she was about to drop down to sit and wait, the door opened and Rallen stepped out, quietly closing the door behind him.

Immediately, Jeena pushed off from the wall and Komainu whined as he hopped over to Rallen for attention. "Hey… how did it go?"

"…Okay, I suppose…" Rallen murmured softly with a small sigh. "I'd rather… not talk about it just yet, though."

"It's okay, Rallen… I understand," Jeena said kindly with a small smile. "C'mon, let's go to the cafeteria. You must be starving by now, right?" It was _way_ past the time that Rallen usually ate lunch, and the NPP Officer was very punctual about his meals, even without looking at a clock.

As she made to walk off, though, Rallen quipped: "Actually… I was thinking of going out for lunch. You mind?"

That comment caused Jeena to whirl back around to face Rallen, confused at first, before she thought she understood. "Oh, right… to avoid the questions that'll be coming, huh?"

"Not really…" Rallen admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Just… um…" The young man paused for a moment to tub the back of his neck. "I know it's probably a bad time to ask, but… Jeen, would you consider going out with me?"

Jeena almost, _almost_, dropped her jaw at the sudden question, and she had to wonder what had brought on the sudden enquiry. But, upon noticing the look on Rallen's face, she had a feeling she already knew.

So instead of questioning it, she smiled. "Sure, Rall. I'd love to."

Rallen blinked in slight surprise at it going so easy, but that surely didn't take long, and within half a minute he grinned. "Cool."

Jeena only giggled, and walked down the hall, absently wondering where they would be eating for lunch. Because of that, when Rallen reached out and lightly grabbed her hand, she jumped in surprise. But when she realized what had happened, she allowed a small smile and linked her hand with Rallen's. Said NPP officer offered her a small grin, as they started walking down the hall, with Komainu running after them, barking happily.

Some people who saw them going gave them a few strange look, but, honestly, neither of them could care less. It just wasn't important…

It was much more important to cherish the moments you had left with those you loved… before it was too late…

* * *

><p>As the trio left NPPHQ behind, they never noticed that their trek was followed quietly.<p>

Liz watched them go quietly, their hands entwined together. As much as she wanted to remain indifferent, she couldn't, not really. Because she was jealous of them, just slightly. Of course it didn't show, but it wasn't that difficult to figure out if you knew her well enough.

With a sigh, she slowly took her seat again, and leaned back with her eye shut, praying quietly for her consciousness to abandon her for a moment so she could rest. No one was going to know, anyway.

"…_I'm so sorry…_"

Liz didn't even give the quietly spoken words much thought, figuring them to be little more than a stray thought lingering in her mind, with a dash of wishful thinking.

"_Lizzy… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…_"

Her consciousness had almost completely abandoned her by then, but even then she could not miss the soft touch against her lips, forcing her consciousness back, though her eyes remained closed, for now.

"_Alliz… I love you…_"

"…!" Liz's eye snapped open in surprise, but when she looked around, she was alone. "…what was that…?"

Of course, no answer came, and the Commander leaned back again, frowning. 'I must be losing it… is that what happens when you lose someone dear?' she wondered to herself.

As she closed her eyes again, though, she felt the soft touch to her cheek, like someone placing their hand on it. She kept her eyes shut this time, and simply waited, wondering if she was actually going crazy. The touch soon came to her opposite cheek as well, and her bangs were lightly pushed away. She felt nothing else just yet, but then there was another soft touch.

"_Alliz… I'm so sorry… I love you…_"

She wanted to look, wanted to look so badly, but she feared it would vanish if she opened her eyes, just like last time, so she only brought up a hand to her cheek, trying to find the other person stading over her, but it was like there was nothing there at all. But she knew… there was only person in NPP who knew her full name…

"…Rex…"

"…_I love you, Alliz… I love you so much… I… I'll miss you…_"

"…dolt…" she murmured quietly. "…I love you, too… and I'm going to miss kicking your sorry ass…"

Silence for a moment, and then there was a soft laugh."

"…_Lizzy… goodbye… I love you…_"

Gradually, the presence she had felt dissipated entirely and she slowly opened her eye again, a single tear rolling down her cheek.

"…you'll never change, you dolt…" she mumbled. "…but that's why I always loved you…"

Slowly, she shut her eye again and felt her consciousness finally fade away, and her last thought went to Rallen and Jeena, and, while she didn't believe in any higher being, she prayed for them to find the happiness that she and Rex could no longer have.

* * *

><p><strong>Right… sorry 'bout the delay; been stuck in TWEWY for a long time.<strong>

**Also, yes, Liz's first name is actually "Alliz".**

**So in any case, if anyone has either another idea about what happened to Rex, or a request about a possible continuation, let me know and I'll try to work with it… or do it yourself and let me know. Whichever you prefer.**


	11. Epilogue b

_**Epilogue b: Belated**_

* * *

><p>Rallen stretched out in his seat with a barely suppressed yawn, before he relaxed and looked to Jeena casually, hands behind his head. "So… you ready to start heading home?"<p>

Jeena looked over curiously, before she frowned a little. "Shouldn't we wait until your brother's awake again? What if the engine wakes him up?"

"Ah, he'll be _fine!_ Once he falls asleep, he can sleep through just about anything!" Rallen chuckled out.

Jeena sighed, but she allowed a fond smile. "Alright, but if he comes up complaining that we woke him, I'm blaming it on you."

"Roger that," Rallen said with a grin as he straightened up and started the engines.

His partner merely smiled and shook her head. "You're such a goof."

And with that said, the cruiser lifted off of the planet's surface and then took off.

* * *

><p>They were halfway from Meido to Kollin when the comm system suddenly beeped, signaling they had an incoming call.<p>

"Hm? Oh. You think it's Liz?" Rallen asked curiously with a small grin on his face.

"Wouldn't that be something?" his partner said with a small smile of her own as she patched the call through.

As the screen flickered on, it was Grant's face that greeted them.

"_Rallen, Jeena. Where have you two been?_"

"We're sorry, sir. We got a little sidetracked whilst running an errand for Commander Marks," Jeena said politely as Rallen kept his attention on their path.

"_Sidetracked? You were outside of communication range for most of the day. What happened?_"

"Nothing, really. Nothing major, at least," Rallen said cheekily, sharing a knowing glance with his partner, who shot him a small smile of her own.

"_Hm? So something __did__ happen?_" Grant asked, a suspicious frown on his face.

"Something like that," Rallen said with a small smirk. "But you'll see that for yourself once we get back."

Though Grant still appeared to be suspicious of Rallen's words, he said nothing else of it, really. "_Hm. Very well. I will see you when you return, then._"

And then the connection was cut once again.

Rallen chuckled as he shared a look with Jeena. "Man, I can't wait to see the look on his face when Rex shows up in front of him."

"Why's that?" Jeena asked.

"Well… Grant was…" Rallen started, but he paused for a moment to frown, and looked out into space again for a while. "…He was… one of the people who… believed Rex was dead when Liz came home alone." Pausing to shake his head, Rallen gave a small sigh before he spoke again. "He didn't say anything about it… but it was pretty obvious that's what he thought…"

Jeena's look became understanding and she nodded. She had a feeling that this wasn't so much about making Grant eat his words, but more about showing Grant that he had been a fool for losing his trust in Rex. Though there would probably be more who thought as such, which meant those two were going to have fun in one way or another.

"Right! Let's move on out!" Rallen exclaimed suddenly, and then kicked off the engines for Kollin once again.

* * *

><p>It was around mid-afternoon by the time that their cruiser docked at NPPHQ, and, in comparison to when they left, the place was bustling with activity.<p>

Rallen allowed a grin as he stretched his arms above his head, briefly. "Whew! _Finally_ we're back!"

Jeena smiled at her partner and said with a small chuckle: "You act like we've been gone for ages, Rallen."

"Well, _we_ haven't, but _someone_ here has," the other NPP said cheekily as he stood up. "I'm gonna see if he's up yet. Be right back!"

The pink-haired girl merely smiled as her partner headed out, shaking her head before she began to shut the cruiser down.

* * *

><p>As Rallen approached the door, he made sure to knock on the door <em>before <em>walking into the room. Rex could be very grouchy if you just stormed into the room without any kind of warning, after all. Once he had, he opened the door and stepped inside with a loud: "Good morning!"

However, Rallen wasn't prepared to see Rex sitting up on the bed, one leg pulled close to his chest, one arm resting along the knee, his handheld journal held in the hand of that arm while he leaned back on his other arm at the same time, with his chin resting in his throat, effectively hiding his eyes from view. Komainu was seated next to him looking up curiously at Rex, until he noticed Rallen and proceeded to dash over with a happy yip.

Once the younger of the two men had picked up Komainu and gave him some light head pats, he quipped up: "Hey, Rex, c'mon, we're here! Let's go! We can probably surprise Grant if we move quick!"

"…Mom's dead, isn't she?"

"…!" Rallen froze when Rex said those words, unable to open his mouth to either deny or confirm what Rex had just said. But apparently, Rex didn't need words to have that done, as he released a heavy sigh that belied his true feelings.

"I see… so that's what you wanted to tell me back on Meido, huh?"

"I… I'm… I'm sorry…" Rallen said softly, hanging his own head in shame. "I… I was going to tell you… but… I… I just…"

His words died in his throat when a hand suddenly landed in his hair, but he hadn't heard Rex get up. And upon looking up, he realized why; it was Rex's right hand that had been placed in his hair, and the limb hovered above him solemnly, lightly ruffling his hair in the same way Rex used to do when they were younger. As it did, Rex slowly got up from the bed, foregoing his boots for the moment, and walked over to his younger brother.

Once he was there, he positioned his right arm against the hovering limb, and the two easily clicked into place, while he pulled the younger NPP into a hug. Rallen blinked slowly, before he reached out with one arm to return the gesture, a bit worriedly, since he wasn't too sure what to expect.

And Komainu merely snuggled closer to Rallen with a happy yowl.

"…I'm sorry… I should've come back a lot sooner…"

"I-it wasn't your fault!" Rallen stammered out, caught off guard by the sudden apology. "It was… just… it was just…"

"Easy, Rall. We can talk about this later, but I needed to get that out of the way," Rex said with a small smile as he stepped back and ruffled Rallen's hair (a little more roughly than before). "So, shall we go?"

Rallen blinked in surprise at the sudden turnabout, before he allowed a grin as Rex walked back to pull on his boots again. "Yeah, sure. C'mon! The Commanders are waiting!"

"…? 'Commanders'? Who else is waiting besides Grant?"

"Lizzy is! Who else?"

"…Lizzy's a Commander? Since when?"

"Um… about 11 years ago, I think."

"…hoo boy… that's gonna be interesting… I just _know_ it…"

* * *

><p>NPPHQ was, in one word, busy when the small group stepped out of the cruiser. The techs were running from one corner of the room to the next to either pick up tools, help their friend, or to move to one of the other cruisers that needed a checkup. The NPP officers themselves were not so busy and seemed to be taking it easy as they left their cruisers in the care of the techs, heading out of the hangar to get something to eat or to enjoy themselves in another fashion.<p>

As they continued on through the hangar, there were several people who stopped to watch in surprise when they spotted Rex, and the man in question merely tossed them a brief wave and smirk, before moving on. He didn't even seem bothered by the whispering that was going on behind his back. In fact, he seemed to take great pleasure from it.

"Heh. You're hardly back for a minute and already everyone's gonna be talking about you," Rallen joked out.

"If they actually recognize me right away. I _did_ change a bit, after all," the older man said back.

"'A bit'?"

"…Okay, 'a lot'."

Jeena smiled as the two men exchanged a quick grin and chuckle, never slowing their pace in the least. They barely seemed to care about the shift in atmosphere the moment they stepped out of the cruiser, which really shouldn't have surprised her as much as it did.

* * *

><p>The trip from the hangar to the Commanders' office took them only a few minutes, though they did have to stop a few times to greet a few people, though Rex didn't appear too fond of doing so, which was a surprise for Jeena.<p>

Despite their small breaks, however, they made good time in getting to Grant's office. Jeena was the one to knock on the door, which was answered by a slightly muffled "Enter," from Grant.

Once they were in the room, Grant spent a few more moments studying the reports before him, before he turned to the small group.

"So, are you ready to–" Grant began, only to choke on his own words when he realized that Rallen and Jeena weren't the only ones to enter. "What in–?"

"Yo, Commander Grant," Rex chuckled out as he gave the man a two-fingered salute. "Been a while, eh?"

Grant stood up so fast just then that he almost knocked his chair over, though it did screech briefly as it was pushed back because of the sudden motion. "Rex! You… you're alive?"

"Alive and kicking, as you can see," the man in question said with a cheeky smirk on his face. "Sorry for the delay; I got unexpectedly held up a few systems over."

"Unexpected…" Grant began, before he frowned, though he appeared to be fighting off a smirk. "Of course you'd be 'unexpectedly' delayed. Whenever do you really _expect_ to be delayed?"

Rex merely laughed, while Rallen and Jeena hid their amusement behind their hands, even as Rex rubbed the back of his head. "Ya got me there, I suppose," he said casually. "So anyway, I hear things were getting a little hectic around here the past two years… guess I missed all the action, huh?"

At those words, even Grant allowed a short chuckle. "Heh. That's one way to put it. Though I doubt you had a complete lack of action wherever it was you disappeared to."

"No comment on that one," Rex said with a grin and a shrug. "Yanno how it goes; hard to keep my nose outta things."

Grant finally allowed a small smile as he briefly shook his head. "So… _this_ is what you two were up to, I take it…" he said finally as he turned to Rallen and Jeena.

"Hehe… yeah, kinda," Rallen said with a grin of his own. "Sorry 'bout the secrecy, but we wanted it to be a surprise."

"Heh. Well, you've succeeded quite well with that," Grant commended with a nod, before he asked: "Does Commander Marks already know, though?"

Rallen, who was standing beside Rex, heard his brother say under his breath: "So she _is_ a Commander now… hoo-boy…" which he ignored for now so he could respond to Grant.

"Not yet. We were planning to see her right after giving you the news," Rallen said with a small half-grin. "Figured the reunion with you would be the shortest."

"Hm. No argument there. Though perhaps you _should _go see her soon," Grant said, allowing himself a smirk. "Wouldn't want her to build up even more anger, now do we?"

"No we don't…" Rallen and Rex said at the exact same time.

"Heh. Alright then, you're dismissed."

* * *

><p>The walk to Liz's office was relatively short, but it seemed to take much longer than usual for some reason. Maybe it was because of the tension in the air around them, but whatever the reason, when they finally reached the door to her office, it was mid-afternoon<p>

When they almost stood in front of it, Rex paused in his steps.

"Rex? You okay?" Jeena asked worriedly.

"…Y… yeah… I'm… I'm fine… really…" Rex murmured, absently tucking his hand in his pocket. "I'm just… a tad bit nervous, I suppose…"

"Don't blame ya…" Rallen mumbled. "Lizzy's prolly gonna bash your head in for being away so long…"

"Among other things…" Rex mumbled under his breath. After a moment of just standing there, Rex finally took a deep breath and exhaled quietly, before he clucked his tongue. "A'ight… this ain't gonna be pretty one way or another… may as well get it over with now and pray my head survives…"

Rallen had to resist the urge to chuckle; this was not the situation to do so, after all. So instead, he stepped up to the door and raised his hand to knock…

Just as he door opened on its own.

This resulted in Rallen jumping back with a startled yelp, even as Liz, who now stood in the doorway, to blink curiously at them. Rex immediately took notice of the large triangular eye patch that covered almost half of her face and tensed, but he kept quiet (for now).

"…You certainly took your time," Liz said finally, her expression and voice perfectly neutral and not giving anything away about how she was feeling. "I was about to see what kept you."

"Ehehe… sorry, Ma'am," Rallen chuckled as he rubbed the back of his head. "We got a little sidetracked along the way since there were a few people who wanted to say 'hi'."

"Is that so?" Liz murmured thoughtfully, though as she did, Jeena realized that the Commander was purposely not looking to Rex for some reason. As though he wasn't even there.

And Rex only stood there, watching silently for the longest time, until Liz _finally_ turned her attention to him. And like that, they stood in silence for several tense seconds, to the point where even Rallen's grin faded as worry began to gnaw at his heart. He shared a look with Jeena, but the girl in question looked equally, if not more worried than Rallen felt.

Finally, though…

"…You're late, Rex," Liz stated coldly, and—strangely enough—Rex only laughed.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Esh, I only just got back and already you're chewing me out," he chuckled as he rubbed the back of his neck with a small headshake. "You never change, huh?"

"Nor do you, unfortunately," the Commander said coolly.

"Nope. You mind?"

"…" To that question, Liz didn't respond immediately, but after a few minutes, she shut her eye and allowed a small smirk. "Not in the slightest."

"Great. Now I don't have to go out of my way to do stuff I don't feel up to," Rex said with a small half-grin.

"…Heh. You're still such a goof."

"And proud of it. Heheh."

Rallen blinked a few times, before he managed to smile and turn to his own partner. The girl in question was also smiling, most likely also seeing just how similar Rex and Liz were acting to themselves.

"Rallen, Jeena," Liz spoke suddenly, turning to the pair in question. "I need to speak to Rex in private for a while. Do you mind?"

"Huh? …Oh! No, of course not!" Rallen responded almost immediately, needing a lot of effort to keep the grin of his face. "Take as long as you need. We don't mind a bit. Right, Jeen?"

Jeena allowed a half-smile of her own and nodded. "Not at all."

Liz allowed a small chuckle, shaking her head before she walked back into her office. Rex shook his head with a small chuckle of his own, and made to follow, only to stop in the doorway to turn to his brother.

"Hey, Rall."

"Hm? Yeah?"

Rex waited for a moment, before he smirked and quipped: "Don't pull any weird stuff now, ya hear?"

"Wha-I-why-REX!" Rallen spluttered out, even as Rex laughed and stepped into Commander's office, the door closing behind him.

* * *

><p>Rex took a deep breath, briefly biting his lip as the door shut, before he released it and turned to face Liz—<p>

"YOU DOLT!"

—and immediately got a right hook to the jaw.

"OW!" Rex yowled out, covering the sore area with his hand. "Okay okay I know I deserved that but seriously, was it necessary to punch _that_ hard?"

"YES THAT WAS NECESSARY, YOU STUPID OAF!" Liz screamed out. "You kept us waiting for 12 years! _Twelve years_, Rex! Do you have ANY idea at all what we were going through here with you gone?"

"Hey whoa whoa! Easy, Liz!" Rex called out quickly holding up his hands in surrender. "C'mon, girl… calm down before you pop a blood vessel or something… YIKE!" Rex quickly ducked to avoid the straight punch that would've crushed his nose for sure.

"Calm down? You expect me to 'calm down' after all this?" Liz demanded, clenching her fist in preparation for her next punch. "I should just-"

However, before Liz could finish (or throw the punch), Rex quickly darted forward, snagged both her wrists in his hands to keep them by her side and caught the young woman's mouth with his own, stopping her tirade before it could escalate any further. It was only a light touch of his lips to hers and nothing else, since she'd kill him if he did anything else, he knew. He also knew that the light grip he had on her wrists would not hold her for long, and if she really wanted to, she could break his hands with a mere flick of the wrist, but he prayed that she wouldn't. He also made sure not to move at all, both with his body and with his mouth, waiting for Liz to either reject or accept him.

After what felt like a short eternity to Rex, Liz's stance relaxed and a weak, sort of strangled sound rolled out from her throat, which Rex took as a sign that she had calmed down at least a little. So, gradually, he moved back, maintaining his light grip on her wrists for a moment, but easing up bit by bit.

Wordlessly, he then stared into Liz's only visible eye, which was still angled down in a frown, but he could see the one thing he had never expected from the young woman in it as well. The one thing he had never, _ever_, seen with her… and also something he, quite honestly _never_ wanted to see;

Tears…

"I'm sorry…" he whispered tenderly, resting his forehead against hers. "I caused you, Rallen, and mom so much pain… I never intended for that to happen, and I'm sorry…" He paused briefly to let his left hand slip down and interlock their fingers, giving her hand a soft squeeze. "I mean it… from the bottom of my heart… I'm sorry… and I know it's… probably too much to ask, but… will you forgive me?"

Liz remained deathly silent, staring up at Rex and never once looking away. As he finished his whispered plea, however, she cast her gaze down.

"…you… dolt…" she snarled softly, but Rex caught the hitch in her voice, and it tore at his heart when he saw the first crystalline tear roll down her cheek. "…in situations like this… sorry doesn't cut it…"

Rex allowed a small smile, as her fingers dug into his skin, almost as if to say "don't let go". "I know… but… it's all I can do… so… I'll say it again as much as I must… I'm sorry… I'm so… _so_ sorry…"

Liz didn't look up at him, but she was not pushing him away, so he took a chance and brought up his other hand to rest it on her back, gently pulling her closer so that he could place her chin on his shoulder.

"…just this once…" Liz hissed out, bringing up her own free arm and gripping the back of his shirt tightly. "…you dolt…"

"Heh… yeah, but I'm _your_ dolt, huh?"

"…heh… you goof…"

Rex merely smiled quietly to himself as he held her close. He wanted so badly to keep her there and never let go again, but she'd probably kill him for it. Let alone there was something else he still needed to do, as well. But, before he could say anything, Liz's fingers reached out for the right side of his face and he instinctively flinched when they passed over his scar.

"What caused this?" Liz asked, a deep frown on her face as she moved his bangs aside.

"Just an old accident… nothing major, really…" Rex murmured softly as her fingers moved across the scar and then over his eyelid as it closed instinctively.

"…it must've hurt…" she whispered, as if to herself, and Rex couldn't help but look at the eye patch that hid her own eye.

"…what about you?" he asked quietly, reaching up and carefully fingering the piece of cloth. "You… did yours hurt, too?"

"…it's just an old injury… it's nothing special…" she said softly, making no move to stop him as he carefully eased the patch off.

As ugly as his own scar was, the sight that greeted him beneath the eye patch was both horrifying and saddening. The skin was a deep red, its surface not only looked, but also felt rough, like sandpaper, the eyebrow had been entirely scorched off, and the skin of the eyelid had seemingly melted, permanently forcing the eye shut. When he touched the skin, even lightly with the very tips of his fingers, she winced sharply and almost instinctively pulled away.

"Shit… Liz… I'm sorry…" he murmured, carefully and tenderly resting his hand on her cheek, not missing how she tried desperately to hide her wince. "I… I can't even… can't even imagine what that must've been like… I'm so sorry…"

"…It's not your fault…" she whispered, lightly holding his hand in her own, despite how it had to hurt like hell. "Stop apologizing for things you couldn't prevent…"

"But I _could've_ prevented it! That's the point! I… I could've-"

"Rex, enough already," she sighed out, lightly squeezing his hand. "It's already done… nothing to do about it now. Stop beating yourself up over it."

"Liz…" Rex bit his lip, debating on what to say, before he settled on placing a feather-light kiss on the burnt skin. "I can't help it… that's how I am… I care about you, and that's why I worry about you… You're more to me than just my partner in NPP… you're my friend… more than that even…"

"Rex…"

Whatever she was going to say, he didn't hear it, as he gave her another soft kiss. Unlike the first one he gave her, she actually responded to this one, if only slightly. Again, it went no further than simple mouth-to-mouth, and that was fine, really. The fact that she was even responding was more than enough for him right then.

Once he had managed to collect his nerve, he slowly pulled away and breathed out what he had been dying to say to her for the past 12 years…

"Liz… I love you."

The Commander stared at Rex in something that could almost, _almost_, be shock, but then she allowed a small smile. "Goof…" she mumbled, before she linked her hands behind his head and pulled his face to hers. "Took you long enough…"

And with that, she kissed him, _hard_.

And Rex only smiled quietly, letting her take charge for once; lord knows what she'd do if he tried to force control on her. He placed his hands on her hips, letting them rest there, letting her decide how far this would go. When she pushed her tongue against his lips, he parted his lips and allowed her to dominate him, only occasionally pushing back with his own tongue.

After almost five minutes, they finally parted. For a few moments, they stared at each other, before Rex spoke up.

"Soooo… does this mean you're not angry with me anymore?"

"…Dolt," Liz mumbled softly, but her mouth curled up in a small half smirk as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Heh. I'll take that as a 'yes', then."

Liz didn't even bother to respond that time (though she did snort), which was fine, since it gave him some time to prepare himself mentally.

'Okay… just calm down… you had 12 years to prepare so get on with it!'

"…Hey… Alliz?"

The second he said that, Liz's only eye widened in surprise and she pulled back to look at him strangely. "You _never_ use that name… What's wrong?"

"N-nothing…!" Rex got out, and he mentally smacked himself for stammering. Breathing out slowly, he rubbed the back of his neck. "I just… well… I was just wondering… if you'd… consider… um… well…"

"Rex, are you sure you're-"

"I'm fine! I just… um…"

Rex almost wanted to rip his hair out in frustration. He'd had twelve years to prepare, and here he was, screwing up. Go figure…

After taking another deep breath and letting it out in a heavy sigh, he reached into his pocket, scraping together all scattered bits of his courage as he pulled it out. 'Now or never… c'mon, _**do it!**_'

"Alliz Marks," he said finally, not waiting for her to gather her wits and getting down on one knee as he brought out the small box, "would you grant me the honor of staying by my side forever as my wife?"

"…! R-Rex…" That was all she got out as she stared down at the small box he held out to her. Or more precisely, at its contents.

Inside the box rested a silver ring with a light purple stone surrounded by smaller stones of deep ocean blue and pale yellow the color of sand set in an infinity symbol around the purple stone. The combination of colors reminded her of nightfall on Nessa, when the skies would turn purple after the sun's departure and the sand and water seemed to glow with an ethereal light. A sight she had always adored more than anything in her childhood.

For the longest time, Liz could only stare, and it was almost as if she wasn't breathing. She tried to work her jaw to speak, but her voice appeared to have abandoned her. After all, out of all the things Rex could have told her upon his return to Kollin after so long, this was most likely not what she had expected him to say.

"I know that this might seem… a little sudden," Rex said finally, looking down to the ground briefly, before he turned back to Liz, gently taking her right hand in his own. "But I mean what I say. I love you, Liz, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, and not just as your partner. I understand that I might be far too late to ask you… but…"

"…you dolt," Liz said quietly just then, and when he looked at her face, he saw she was close to crying, and yet she was smiling – _actually smiling_. "You… you're always late with… with such things."

Rex blinked, a little confused before he realized that Liz was squeezing his hand lightly. "Liz…? Y-you mean…?"

Rather than answer verbally, however, Liz merely reached into the box and looped her left ring finger through it. Even with her glove on, it was a perfect fit.

"Seriously… you need to work on your timing, Rex," she said with a small smile still playing on her lips. "Don't you know it's impolite to keep a girl waiting?"

Rex remained where he sat for a while longer, just staring as Liz studied the ring on her own finger, before his mouth twisted up into a grin as he jumped up and – without thinking twice about it – hugged the Commander tightly, startling Liz enough for her to yelp slightly. Her surprise didn't last for long, however, as she soon chuckled softly and wrapped her arms around him n turn.

"I'm sorry I'm late, Lizzy…" he whispered to her. "I'm _so_ sorry… I swear I'll find some way to make up for how long I've been away. I swear I'll–"

"Rex."

"Yeah?"

"Shut up and kiss me, you dolt."

Rex blinked in surprise, but then he laughed and did as he was ordered.

"I love you, Liz…" he breathed when they parted briefly for air.

"Dolt…" Liz murmured as she linked her hands behind his neck. "I love you, too…"

* * *

><p>In the meantime, Rallen and Jeena stood, leaning against the wall, waiting for either Rex or Liz to come back out. The two were taking their time, and they had already been expecting that, but this was getting to be a little ridiculous.<p>

Rallen yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Esh… are they ever coming out? Seriously…"

"They have a lot to catch up on, Rallen. I mean, they've been apart for 12 years, right?" Jeena pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, I know… but still…" the orange-haired man mumbled to himself, hands behind his head as he leaned back, crossing his legs over one another. "…Can't he just say it and get it over with?" he murmured softly after a while.

"Hm? You say something, Rallen?"

"…Nah."

For a long time, the pair remained where they were, silently contemplating even as Komainu plopped down beside Rallen's feet to nap… up until a familiar beep startled them both.

Rallen blinked in surprise, before he reached under his gauntlet and pulled out his handheld, flipping it open with one hand. As he read the message he had just been sent, he hummed a little non-committedly to himself, before he snorted. "Oh, _now _he's telling us to find something for ourselves to do. Figures… eh?"

Just then, Rallen blinked and squinted at the last section – and then he promptly started laughing.

"…? What's so funny, Rallen?" Jeena asked with a frown.

Instead of an answer, however, Rallen held out the handheld to her, trying very hard to stifle his laughter with his free hand. Confused, Jeena took it from him and read through the message quietly. It wasn't until the end of the message that she realized what had to have set Rallen off.

It was a small PS, really, but it succeeded in getting the point across, and Jeena actually felt her face heating up a bit.

"He… did… did he…?"

"Hah… hahah… y-yeah… hahah… H-he was planning that from the get-go since 12 years ago already! Hahaha!"

"R-Rallen! I-it's not _that_ funny!"

"I know I know! Hahaha! S-sorry, but I… hahah…" Rallen managed to take a few deep breaths so that he could calm down, though he was still chuckling. "Heh… I just… remembered something funny."

"Uh-huh…" Jeena mumbled, having a feeling that Rallen knew more than he was letting on.

"Anyway! Since those two are going to be busy for a while, let's go out and eat something, shall we?"

"Huh? Where did—hey! Rallen! Wait up!" Jeena called out, quickly running after her partner as he hurried off.

"C'mon Jeen! It'll be like Rex's treat to celebrate!"

"Seriously!"

As angry as she sounded, however, she couldn't help but giggle slightly when she realized that Rallen was just excited about the news they had just gotten, and she really couldn't blame him for it. So instead, she just hurried along after her partner.

It wasn't every day you learned your brother was getting married, after all, so maybe a _small_ celebration was in order.

* * *

><p>As the trio left NPPHQ behind, they never noticed that their trek was followed quietly.<p>

"Aaand there they go," Rex chuckled out from where he was sitting on the windowsill.

Liz only shook her head with a small half-hearted sigh before she turned to face him from her seat. "Are you going to grab a chair anytime soon or are you gonna keep spying on your little brother?"

"…Little, huh?" Rex murmured thoughtfully as he watched Rallen pause with a laugh to let Jeena catch up. "…Not so little anymore, is he?"

The last time that Rex had seen his brother before his "disappearance", the kid had only just gotten to just below knee height, since Rex himself had kept growing taller until he was 28, though much slower than Rallen. And now Rallen almost easily reached his shoulders, and it only made Rex more aware of just how much he had truly missed.

"…It wasn't your fault, dolt," Liz said after a while as she turned back to her work, startling the orange-haired man. "Quit thinking it is, already."

"…Can't help it…" Rex sighed out. "I've missed so much… I wish I could've been there for Rall… for you… for mom…"

"…" Liz sighed and stood up, walking over, before she abruptly socked him to the back of his head.

"Ow! Hey, watch it!"

"Quit your moping, then. It's not like you."

Rex looked at her dryly for a moment, before he rolled his eyes and looked outside again, in time to see Rallen catch Jeena when she almost fell over. "…Esh, that's it!" he growled suddenly, pulling out his handheld and rapidly typed in something.

Liz blinked curiously, looking over his shoulder to see what he wrote… and couldn't help hut chuckle as he sent it.

"_Are you gonna man up and __kiss her__ already or do I have to get down there and make you?_"

"Really now, Rex, since when have you dropped to match-making?" Liz asked casually as they watched Rallen reach for his own handheld.

"Liz, I almost wasted _my_ chance, and I'm not about to let my brother make the same mistakes I made," Rex said solemnly, though he almost laughed when he saw Rallen tensing, and then hiding his handheld when Jeena tried to see what message he got. "For both their sakes."

"…Heh. That is _so_ you; always putting others' feelings and safety above your own."

Rex smirked as he looked back to Liz. "Problem?"

"Hmm… no," she said finally, and then she moved forward and kissed him briefly.

The orange-haired man smiled with a small chuckle, before he stood up. "So anyway! How 'bout we go get something to eat for ourselves and turn some heads, eh?"

"…Dolt," Liz murmured with a small smile of her own. "Even if I say 'no', you'll just drag me along, anyway."

"Glad to know you still know how I work! Let's mosey!" Red laughed, taking Liz's hand and beginning to tug her along. And the Commander only chuckled as she kept up easily.

"Oh! Hey Lizzy?"

"Don't call me that. And what?"

"Happy belated birthday."

"…Dolt."

"Heheh."

* * *

><p><strong>Right… sorry 'bout the delay; been stuck in TWEWY for a long time.<strong>

**Also, yes, Liz's first name is actually "Alliz".**

**So in any case, if anyone has either another idea about what happened to Rex, or a request about a possible continuation, let me know and I'll try to work with it… or do it yourself and let me know. Whichever you prefer.**


End file.
